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Emotional negativity is a form of intoxication. It impairs perception and judgment. The intellect becomes slave to emotion and begins defending it, creating a vicious cycle in which thoughts bias perception and biased perception reinforces negativity.

Soon the mind sees what it wants to see and finds endless reasons to indulge in cynicism and depression — injustice, betrayal, suspicion, despair, stupidity, etc…

In most cases, this downward spiral is initiated and sustained by influences that have no basis in reason. The mind isn’t even aware of the true reasons for its irritated or suppressed state. All it takes is a chemical imbalance, an abrasive astrological influence, a trigger word stirring some subconscious wound, a bad dream you don’t remember, or a small irritation suddenly “ruining” your day.

But these are relatively benign aggravators. More serious ones include psychic attack, entity attachments, subliminal persuasion through implants, remote scalar modulation of emotional frequency rate, and triggering of posthypnotic commands following abduction and mind programming.

Nevertheless, the exact cause isn’t as important as the solution. When you’re feeling down, you’re feeling down. How to climb out of that pit?

The biggest problem is that negative emotions limit perception, meaning you fail to recognize, remember, or observe the positive side of things. That is because when your emotional state is lowered, your focal point of consciousness has descended into the baser self and is looking through its dark eyes, identifying with its skewed perception.

The baser self is an infantile creature, both predator and victim. It enjoys your suffering, your hatred and anger, your contempt and resentment. Often we merge so closely with this creature that we feel what it feels, which is why at some level we enjoy wallowing in negativity. But remember this is not the real you — this is you feeling the pleasure your baser self derives from the suffocation of your spirit. If you pay attention, you will notice a part of your own mind in the background that is calm and unaffected, that has to forget itself if it wants to indulge in the negative wallowing. You can return to this calm observer mind, and from there catapult yourself to a positive state.

When you are drowning in negativity you need a lifeline to pull yourself back to shore. Something must lead from your drunken state to sober state in order for you to follow. Without it, you are not equipped to make that transition. It’s like trying to get home but being too drunk to walk, let alone drive; best to have a sober friend help you.

One example of a self-reinforcing cycle is paranoia. This is a particulary sticky trap for the intellect. Trying to reason your way out of biased suspicions will only sink you deeper because a clever mind is clever at coming up with rationalizations for its delusions. There are some problems for which reason alone is insufficient. I learned this the hard way and had to transcend reason in order to break out of the cycle, and that hard-won lesson is the focus of this research note.

I eventually comprehended that breaking out of a vicious cycle requires the injection of an element that originates outside that cycle of biased logic. Otherwise the cycle is self-reinforcing. For instance, when the mind alternates between sobriety and drunkenness, both states seem valid and justified while one is experiencing them, even though only the first is truly valid. Both sober and drunk people may believe they can drive well, but the drunk ones are deluding themselves.

During states of what ultimately turned out to be unjustified negativity, rather than reasoning my way out of it I simply pulled myself up a rope leading toward a more balanced state. This rope is simply a prayer, an affirmation, a meditation, an inspirational book — something mechanical that serves as an aid in regaining balance. Only when emotions are balanced is the mind qualified to make proper assessment of the facts. Until then, a bit of faith is required in using what is basically an emotional device, a lifeline.

As mentioned earlier, negativity clouds perception and subjectively rearranges, distorts, and blots out the perceived facts. But a prayer, meditation, sequence of spiritual facts coming from a place of sobriety and anchored in place via print or rote memory, this survives any transition you make into negativity and serves as a lifeline back to clarity and balance.

Forget reasoning your way out of negativity — first get a grip on your emotions. Break the cycle of subjectivity by contemplating a prewritten or pre-memorized sequence of phrases that captures the essence of a balanced perception. Yes this is a crutch, but it’s better to hobble than to crawl. It’s the easiest method, a quick fix for desparate situations.

The reason it works is because you acknowledge that your perceptions are skewed and thereby withdraw your energy from illusion. You also acquire faith to temporarily put aside the petitions of the baser self and instead wait for your vibes to lift before making any decisions or conclusions. Once your emotional state has risen to equilibrium, perception returns to normal and you are then in a better position to make decisions and act upon them.

So the key is bypassing an intellect intoxicated with negative emotions by turning your attention toward thoughts and feelings designated as sober by sober sources. The only hard part is willing yourself to give it a try since the baser self is very reluctant to give up its joyride and will initially resist through you. Do it anyway. Become aware of the calm observer at the center of your self-awareness, and then shift gears by using a lifeline.

If this idea appeals to you, try creating your own lifeline to call upon when necessary. The one I use employs a hermetic axiom stating that vibrations can be changed in degrees. So starting with the most negative of positive emotions, sorrow, I raise myself degree by degree. For illustrative purposes, here is one that works for me:

Sorrow for the wounded,
Compassion for the wounded.
Understanding of the ignorant,
Acceptance of the ignorant.
To know that everything has been in its right place,
Is in its right place, and will continue to be in its right place.
That’s why I have comfort in the past,
Gratitude in the present, and hope for the future.
I thank the Universe for this opportunity
To live and shine my light,
To guide and be guided,
To love and be loved.

Here, each line is pondered in its full meaning before going to the next. That is important, as the mechanical serves only as a template for your emotional, intellectual, and spiritual to follow. Just mumbling the words without thought does nothing. You can boil them down to just a sequence of words: sorrow, compassion, understanding, acceptance, relief, hope, gratitude, love, purpose.

Sometimes it is enough to turn within and focus on the feeling of profound peace. Actually, with sufficient willpower and focus you can dispense with mechanical tools altogether and simply turn within, remember your spiritual self, and thereby raise yourself to an exalted state.

But when under severe pressure, and here I mean an all out hyperdimensional “lesson,” (they hit you from the inside and outside simultaneously, at your weakest spots at your weakest moments) the mechanical method is a literal godsend.

Tom Montalk - https://montalk.net/notes/314/lifeline