How To Deal with Conflicting Thoughts
Do you have this experience in your life? Two conflicting thoughts come to you and you don’t know which one is the right one that you should listen to.
And when you try to analysis both thought in order to decide which one should listen to, it makes you more confuse and makes you more indecisive. You become suffering by your thoughts now before any decision is made.
This inner conflict is very common in human beings mind.
Know Your Intuition
Isn’t good to know your intuition so that you don’t have to suffer this inner conflict in your mind? How do you know the voice of intuition?
Before we touch on this, we have to understand that regardless is your thought A or thought B, both are just thoughts themselves. Therefore, it is not important who is right or wrong.
Our mind like to run thought about the past and future. The information data it has is limited by its past experience and judgment and imagination. Therefore, your decision that is being made out from your thought is never the best decision.
However, we usually like to made decision from our thought because our mind love to live in the knowing than the unknown because it makes the mind feel comfortable.
Therefore, we always like to stay in our comfort zone as long as we live with our mind.
But do you know that intuition actually come from the unknown? Therefore, if you keep clicking on to do things that you know only, it’s very difficult to receive that intuition.
If you really want to know your intuition, you have to let go of your mind.
How To Free Yourself From Inner Conflict
To begin, you have to be aware of your thoughts. By discovering awareness can free us from inner conflict. You have to be aware they are just thoughts, the thought is not you. Therefore, it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong.
Just imagine these two thought are people, person A and person B. So it is just two persons talking to you, they don’t know everything and cannot confirm their say is 100% correct.
What they said is based on the limited information data they have. They actually don’t know.
Learn to come back to yourself by discovering your awareness. You are that awareness that are aware that they are thoughts.
You are aware of the breathing, the energy feeling in your hands, body, the heart beat, etc. You are that Awareness.
Once you realize you are that Awareness, you are living in the present moment, the NOW. You will have a sense that everything will be work out itself. After a storm, there is always a rainbow. After a night, there is always a day to come.
Whatever you are experiencing at this present moment, bad or good, it’s just a lesson for you to learn something about life. After a lesson, just move on with your life journey for the next new lesson to learn.
The Thoughts From A Present
When you keep maintain at that Awareness being, the present moment, the NOW, there will be thought arise from the present moment which will guide you whether for decision-making or do something. This is what I have said intuition come from the unknown, not from your thoughts.
I know it is not easy to maintain at that state of Awareness being, the present moment, because our monkey mind will keep interfering.
We have been so used to work with our thought for every minute every second, it is not easy to change this habit because we have been condition this way since young.
To change a habit, we just need to keep put the new habit into practice. We have been addicted to our thoughts. In order to remove this addiction, you need to have that determination and persistent because if not, you will give up very easy as we know that to remove an addiction is a hard work, it’s never easy.
Some people might ask is it worth it to go through this hard work? Living as an Awareness being, the present, the NOW, is the key word away from suffering and towards true happiness. Do you think is worth it?
Of course, the choice is yours. Everybody has their free will.
I have come across a very good video to share with everyone by Eckhart Tolle who has explained in a very details about how to deal with conflicting thoughts and how discovering awareness can free us from inner conflict. Please enjoy.
Dealing With Conflicting Thoughts | Q&Q Eckhart Tolle
The Power of Now book – Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life.
The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating, and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey.
Eckhart Tolle is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Power of Now (translated into 33 languages) which I highly recommended reading.
Eckhart‘s profound yet simple teachings have helped countless people throughout the world find inner peace and greater fulfillment in their lives.
At the core of the teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution.
If you like to learn more about Eckhart Tolle, please CLICK HERE.
Let Know More
I have quite a number of blog posts about the mind which touch on the power of NOW and the power of Letting Go that you might interest to learn more. My most recent blog posts like
and much more. For the full list please CLICK HERE.
Please feel free to share your thought or experience by leaving them in my comment box provided at the bottom and I am more than happy to hear from you.
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Namaste.
Janet
I’m a qualified Yoga Teacher. I have been practicing yoga since year 2002 and start teaching since year 2004. I have created Janet Yoga Spirit to help everyone who is in the yoga journey and provide products and services to help everyone in whatever they are looking for in related to yoga including nice and comfortable yoga clothings for your yoga practice, yoga accessories that help you in your practice, retreats to help you to unplug yourself, yoga teacher training, yoga and meditation classes, yoga and wellness programs, tools to help you with the union of the body, mind and soul, and much more! Learn more about me under "About" and enjoy looking around and have a good time here! Namaste.
8 Comments
Tom
Hi Janet,
Your articles are so inspirational and helpful. I like to think of myself as a well rounded and confident person, but I do wrestle with my inner thoughts every single day.
Everybody all over the world does, and it is important that we get them under control so we don’t go the extremes of harming ourselves or others.
This is such an important article so I am going to share it with my friends and family.
During these times in lockdown our inner thoughts are going more out of control than ever, especially with people who are living on their own and don’t see anyone as often as they used to.
Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.
All the best,
Tom
Janet
Hi Tom. Nice to see you again! Thank you for sharing your thought. And thank you for sharing my article with your family and friends.
Always remember to be aware where you put your attention and focus on. Because wherever your focus go to, your energy go there. Therefore, if your attention are on the bad news and those negative articles, you will end up having more negative thoughts with no peace of mind.
I never have attention on those news about the virus, therefore I have no fear of it. I see people around me whole day talk about the virus news. Indirectly they are actually creating more fear inside them without realising themselves. I can tell by their negative words from their talks.
When you are living in fear, how to have peace of mind? I have advise them to stop talking about it, don’t put your energy there. At first they take my advise, but a while later they cannot get out of their mind and start talking about it again.
You see, this is how powerful is the mind. If you use it the wrong way or out of control over it, it become a harmful weapon that is doing harm to yourself.
Therefore, learning to build your awareness is so important. When you are aware that your mind is start running those bad news or stories, quickly pull yourself back from the mind. Back to your awareness being, the stillness.
All the best to you too Tom! 🙂
Nina
Very good thoughts and explanation of the occurrence of conflicting thoughts and how to deal with them. I like that you personified them because that makes the explanation even clearer and more authentic.
Given the number of thoughts that arise in our daily lives, conflicts certainly arise. I’ve been developing awareness for a while now, so I quickly stop if I have negative thoughts that want to overpower the positive ones and look for some positive ones again.
But if I have any conflicts, I always ask myself how I feel about which thought.
I have already read the book you recommend – Echkart Tolle, The power of Now, and I highly recommend it.
Friendly greeting,
Nina
Janet
Thank you Nina.:) And also thank you for sharing your way of dealing with conflicting thoughts.
Guess that you can progress well partially because of Echkart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now, that you have read.
To develop awareness is not an overnight work. Really have to put into practice in our daily life. All the best to you!
Justin
Hi Janet.
You’re right about addictions. I have been working on letting go of my conflicting thoughts for close to five years.
I have tried a lot of different things and have finally started to make a little bit of progress. It’s a constant challenge to let my thoughts go but I’m not going to stop.
Thanks for sharing this post.
Janet
Hi Justin. Thank you for sharing your experience. And glad to hear that you are in progress.
Yes, it’s true. It’s a constant challenge to let go of thoughts. Glad to hear that you are not going to give up. Same here, I’m facing my challenge constantly too. Everytime when I realise I’m into thought, I quickly pull myself back by doing deep breathing or focus on my feeling in my heart.
I also read and do research alot about the mind and universe to have a better understanding how it work. Because with more knowledge can also help you deeper your practice.
Always remember never give up. All the best to you! 🙂
Habib
Hi Janet,
Many thanks for this highly useful article on how to deal with your conflicting thoughts. I must say I am one of them who needs a constant reminder (by myself) on thinking positive.
As majority of my thoughts don’t have much of a concrete base! Because we are naturally wired to think negative or should I say protective to save us from danger and harm.
That’s why we are constantly filtering those thoughts. I am also aware that most of the times these are not needed and they cause more harm than good.
You have reminded us in a great way to deal with conflicting thoughts.
Best wishes
Janet
Hi Habib. Thank you for sharing your thought and experience.
As I have mentioned in my article, whether is positive or negative thought, both are just thoughts. Therefore, they become conflicting thoughts. Try to bring your awareness on this.
The practice here is not about only having positive thoughts because this is impossible. Both whether is so called positive or negative thoughts are always out there.
It’s about the practice of how to bring yourself back to that awareness being state which just being aware and watching the thoughts arise out there but not being affect or influence by them. You maintain at that awareness stillness.
The practice of NOW can help to attend that state. This is the power of NOW.
I know not everyone catch it. I also don’t catch it the first time! You have to keep expereiencing yourself and one day you will start to catch a bit of it and slowly catch more. Regular practice and you will see the progress. Meditation is a good practice.