The Power of Meditation to Overcome Negative Mind — The Story of Maira
Maira grew up in a devout Hindu family in India. She was taught to have a righteous mind toward God and she always tried to read the scriptures. Despite doing this, she had a negative mindset inclined to constant complaining. When she was young, her father was very conservative and strict. She was angry with him, but she repressed her feelings. As an adult, she redirected her anger at her mother, her husband, and her child. She was not aware of the roots of all that negativity and annoyance in her mind. Neither did she know how to get rid of them.
When she was 21 years old, Maira moved to the United States. Her transition abroad was harsh, as she faced racial discrimination and cultural differences. This situation further reinforced her inclination toward frustration and complaints. She seemed to have lost all sense of gratitude. Her negativity continued to affect her husband and her child. She struggled personally too, because she could not find a way out of that loop of negativity.
At one point, her husband suggested meditation could be a way of calming her mind. She agreed to give meditation a try, searched online, and located a nearby Meditation Centre. She enrolled and started meditating. Every day after work she went to the Meditation Centre, listened to a lecture, and practiced guided meditation. The practice allowed her to look back on herself. This is when she really could see the root of her negative mind. She found the source of her negative, ungrateful mind, and chose to abandon this negativity.
Meditation taught her that the mind is just like a trash can that collects all sorts of garbage. This was exactly what she was looking for. It was easy to understand. When she realized that, she felt as if she had cohered back to life. She used the meditation method to get rid of her negativity. She finally felt free, and she saw herself changing every day. It took her a few months to start feeling the changes, but once she committed to working on herself, her life transformed.
Her mind is now very peaceful. The tormenting noise, ceaseless mind chatter, and negativity no longer exist in her head. Her mind is just like a peaceful forest. It is like nature. As she meditated more, she began to realize how her attitude had been affecting her family, too. She felt sorry for them. She regretted having caused them stress and pain and wanted to improve the quality of their lives, too. She introduced meditation to all of them. Her entire family now meditates with her. They live every day with happiness and gratitude.
Most of our thoughts are repetitive and negative. Research has found that 95% of the thousands of thoughts that cross our minds every day, a staggering 95 percent are the same thoughts we have had the day before. Furthermore, 80 percent of those thoughts are negative.1 Many people get trapped in the loop of repetitive negative thinking (RNT), a mental mechanism of worrying, ruminating, and playing over and over again the same set of negative thoughts. This affects mental well-being and, if not dealt with properly, can lead to anxiety and depression.2 This is what happened to Maira when she succumbed to the snowball effect of negativity. The painful experiences from her past defined her dominant way of being, and every new problem or challenge added to it, making the negative mindset grow large and uncontrollable.
Stillness techniques, such as meditation, calm the mind and place the awareness within. By temporarily withdrawing from the outside world into our inner sanctuary, we learn to seek answers within ourselves. This regular practice enabled Maira to understand that social conditioning (culture, religion, upbringing, etc.) had played a significant role in shaping her mindset and worldview. She understood that she had been carrying negativity in her mind all along, and external circumstances were just triggers that kept making her feel miserable. She also understood that, despite the past, she needed to take responsibility for her life moving forward and shape her response (as opposed to reaction) to new life situations. She acquired the tool of change (meditation), and she readily embraced it. As she began doing that, her awareness also began to broaden—she grew more empathetic of others (her family members), and she was finally able to bring more peace into their family life.