How to get rid of negative thoughts? || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Question: How can I remove my negative thoughts?

Acharya Prashant: By not calling them ‘your’ negative thoughts. Till the time you say that these are ‘my’ negative thoughts, how can you get rid of them?

First of all you have to create a distance between you and these thoughts. Till the time you keep identifying with them, you keep calling them yours, they will be with you. ‘My negative thoughts’, this MY must go away.

Thoughts are thoughts. You are not the your thoughts and the thoughts are not really yours.

The mind is configured, programmed to think and this thinking is stimulated by external events. Why do you call these thoughts yours? Why do you call them yours? Look at the thoughts just as you look at anything else. When these thoughts arise, look at them just as you look at this fan or you look at anything happening in a laboratory. Let it happen and just know it completely that this is happening.

First thing is, stop calling them ‘my thoughts’ and second is, stop calling them ‘negative’. The moment you label something as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’, it will be impossible for you to be impartial, unbiased towards it.