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Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

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Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#111

Post by camillomiller »

scns wrote: post #100
camillomiller wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not to mention that Freud was a quack who was more prone to speculation than to science, so if traditional psychotherapy is based on his work then it is likely built on sand. Wow, that’s rich. Dismissing Freud like this is the most egregious way of conducting a discussion about these topics. Have you also ever thought that Mindfulness and CBT, while effective, are successful in a capitalistic society because ultima…

> Mindfulness and CBT have a solid ground but have become a strong weapon Have to disagree. A weapon is for fighting, and as Siddhartha Gautama said: "What you fight becomes stronger." They are tools IMHO that can help you, if you invest time and effort.

Ok then let's put it this way. They became weaponized, because they have a great ability in convincing people they're in need of fixing, instead of questioning the dysfunctional and fundamentally unequal society we live in.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#112

Post by samsquire »

I think it's really important to separate and discern "light" and "darkness" in your mind and actions, word and deed.

I think mental health, negative thoughts is driven by your understanding of truth

If you think the truth is dark then you are looking at darkness and attributing it to truth or the light, which is a mistaken identity. Calling light (the truth) the darkness is an error. Calling darkness the truth is an error. I believe the truth is good. You should pick the right "duality" as your foundational truth, since it's your foundations of whether or not you're in darkness or light.

If it's not good, it's not true reality but a manifestation of darkness. Don't look at darkness and call it the truth. Truth is light, truth is a good thing. Separate the light from the darkness. Bad things going on is a manifestation of darkness, not the truth of what is the foundation nature of everything (which I think is light, good). Ground yourself in light, for that's what the universe is powered by. (Why would you pick the worse option if light is the truth why would you pick otherwise?)

For people who believe in a God of love and arbiter of what is true, the truth is light and positive.

The mechanism of the universe, love, kindness, compassion, mercy, grace, gravity, words, law, legality, mathematics, quantum effects, physics, the mysteries and who decides upon their workings.

Good vs Evil. Light vs darkness. True vs False

It's like being blamed for something you didn't do. Truth cannot be sullied by darkness.

If you keep "the truth is good" as your hope and faith = "light/good is what is is and are", then the darkness cannot touch you.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#113

Post by late25 »

danw1979 wrote: post #105

For a few years after the death of my baby daughter, I’d relive the events of that day pretty regularly, looking for some kind of meaning, pattern, lesson to be learned maybe. I’d also continually wonder what she’d be like now she was 3, 4 years old, etc. This was making me incredibly sad. Eventually, I just had to forget that day, forget her, stop thinking about what her life would have been like, and get on with en…

Heartbreaking. I know it means nothing but my heart goes out to you. Wishing you the best.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#114

Post by heckelson »

danw1979 wrote: post #105

For a few years after the death of my baby daughter, I’d relive the events of that day pretty regularly, looking for some kind of meaning, pattern, lesson to be learned maybe. I’d also continually wonder what she’d be like now she was 3, 4 years old, etc. This was making me incredibly sad. Eventually, I just had to forget that day, forget her, stop thinking about what her life would have been like, and get on with en…

I have nothing constructive to add to your comment, but I was quite moved by it. I'm not a parent (yet?) so I can only begin to imagine what you must have gone through, however I hope you're in a better place now.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#115

Post by corethree »

fellowniusmonk wrote: post #102
corethree wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You seem to be suggesting that humans are capable of perceive objective truth for non trivial things. I believe that for situations where a single human has enough information and ability to ascertain the truth, most humans deliberately will not make a beeline for the truth. They sort of veer off to the side towards a half truth that better suits their situation. None of this is a conscious choice though. Self dece…

Obsession with truth isn't necessarily advantageous for success at the species level. I mean who cares if some guy running a convenience store or writing an email client thinks the world is flat? Maybe we just need a small aberrant percentage of the population so there will always be a few people "shorting" the status quo for cash and occasionally preventing extinction.

>Obsession with truth isn't necessarily advantageous for success at the species level.

It's not just this. It seems as though lying to oneself is so pervasive that it is likely a biological advantage.

Meaning not only is obsession with the truth not advantageous but it's actually disadvantageous while the opposite self deception is actually normal and highly beneficial such that this trait has been naturally selected to persist.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#116

Post by zozbot234 »

vasco wrote: post #73
jongjong wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

A negative thought is just a thought, it's not like you need to actively not take care of real life things or errands. But if you find yourself thinking about death, or about how much your childhood sucked, or that you're good for nothing, you don't need to address anything about those thoughts. The least time you spend on them the better, nothing good comes from dwelling. I can't understand people that want to re-li…

> But if you find yourself thinking about death, or about how much your childhood sucked, or that you're good for nothing, you don't need to address anything about those thoughts.

> The least time you spend on them the better, nothing good comes from dwelling.

Negative visualization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_visualization is absolutely a thing. If you do it properly (aiming towards psychological resilience and gratitude for the things one actually has) it can work quite well.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#117

Post by johnchristopher »

danw1979 wrote: post #105

For a few years after the death of my baby daughter, I’d relive the events of that day pretty regularly, looking for some kind of meaning, pattern, lesson to be learned maybe. I’d also continually wonder what she’d be like now she was 3, 4 years old, etc. This was making me incredibly sad. Eventually, I just had to forget that day, forget her, stop thinking about what her life would have been like, and get on with en…

Yes, it's incredibly cruel when we realize that sometimes forgetting or not keeping them alive in our thoughts is the only way to keep on living without being burdened by the sadness of what may or should have been.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#118

Post by soared »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #74
chmod600 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, maybe or maybe not. A lot of the negative thoughts I have are somewhat fleeting, and if I revisit them the next day they seem pretty trivial and I could probably dismiss them sooner. Others might be more meaningful, perhaps a character flaw that you don't want to think about, but without really processing it it will never get fixed and keep causing more problems.

The fleeting part is essentially what certain types of meditation are all about. Negative thoughts and emotions have to actively be fueled by something in order to persist. And if you spend some time by simply observing those thoughts from a non judgmental stand point they’ll quickly disappear.

> Negative thoughts and emotions have to actively be fueled by something in order to persist.

I don’t think that’s true right? Negative thoughts and emotions occur naturally. If you’re statement we’re true then positive thoughts have to be fueled by something to persist. So then what is fuel - any stimulus at all?

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#120

Post by soared »

aszantu wrote: post #70

Working through multiple traumata for a few years now. I've found that if you work through a negative thought long enough, it will eventually reveal its purpose. I've started journaling in 2016 or so, so it takes a long time, since I didn't have coaching or anything. Internal dialog goes like this: - feeling numb and like dieing ~ what's the issue? - I don't work, feeling guilty over not working, I'd wish they'd fire…

That may work for you, but most of my negative thoughts don’t have a purpose. They exist because I forgot to eat, exercise, or be social.
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