About a week ago, I was participating in a summer meditation retreat. The facilitator asked us to note down our negative and positive qualities. I very enthusiastically started to pen them down in two columns. This is what it looked like .
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In the middle of this exercise I had my AHA moment! It suddenly occurred to me I am not lazy all the time; I am actually quite dynamic and a go-getter on the contrary at times. Looking at the other column, I am also not a giver and kind person all the time, I can be quite selfish at times. So firstly neither the negative nor positive qualities define me. I can be either at different times.
Now what makes the perceived negative or positive qualities show up at different times in me? This is the secret. It is determined by the energy level ( prana is the exact Sanskrit word for this) or the state of my mind. Let me explain.
When I am feeling low, stressed, tired, off centered that’s when all the negative qualities start to manifest. When I am tired, I don’t want to give anything to anyone, I don’t feel like sharing or connecting. I just want to be left alone. I become lazy.
Equally true, when I am in happy mood, full of energy and enthusiasm my positive qualities start to manifest. I naturally feel like giving , being kind, taking on new challenges, etc.
So what I realized is that I don’t have to be stuck to any label, the energy or prana moves within the system and manifests in different colors at different times.
Also negative qualities are not negative all the time. Being lazy at times actually serves me. It allows my body to take rest when it needs to because I am easy on myself. Ofcourse when I over do it, it can be detrimental to my other comittments in life. Same with judgements , they actually help me with decision making but when I am too stuck on one opinion it can also cloud my decision making also. So what my chart should really look like is:
Maybe we should drop the labels negative and positive. Because the so called negative can serve us at times and so called positive can be detrimental to us at times.
In reality, a quality is just a quality- you decide ( either consciously or unconsciously) wether you want it to impact you in a way that serves you in that moment or not.
Now after reading this, has the question arisen in you about how to change the state of prana/ energy in your system so you can have your qualities serve you more? I want you to know that you can change the state of your mind / prana consciously , in fact you already do it everyday I can guarantee. You may just not be consciously aware of it.
I will surely write about this topic some other time, until then keep observing & wondering:)
