Stopping Dangerous Slides in Mental Health

Stopping Dangerous Slides in Mental Health | Discussion

Рет қаралды 335

2 ай бұрын

A discussion based on the question (paraphrased and generalized)...
'How do I stop escalating negative mental behaviors from tipping over to the point where they make it hard to function?'

Пікірлер: 11

@cariyaputta 2 ай бұрын

In my experience, practice keeping the precepts and the uposatha strictly helps greatly. The quality of thoughts also increased. And also the mantra "none of my business, what can I possibly do? I should focus on my own." To deal with anxiety about external macro things that are clearly out of my control.

@DhammaVinayaPatipada 2 ай бұрын

Definitely, these things can form a 'mesh'. Keeping the Uposatha and the precepts are very important supports in strengthening the fabric of the mind. Sounds like some good strategies.

@andrewcourtman1460 2 ай бұрын

Hi Bhante, thank you for a talk I needed to hear. I sometimes on the odd occasion get anxiety about various things, one being on climate change (especially after watching KZfaq videos about that subject) . I will take your advice and try to do more breath meditation to counter my worries. Sadhu.

@DhammaVinayaPatipada 2 ай бұрын

Very happy it might have been helpful, Andrew. Breath meditation can be a great help. A good example you brought up about KZfaq videos as well. They may actually be designed to induce anxiety in some cases. Wishing all the best from Sri Lanka

@fingerprint5511 2 ай бұрын

Thank you Bhante 🙏🙏🙏

@One_In_Training 2 ай бұрын

Thank you, Bhante! This is very useful. The point you make about calmly enduring the doomsday thoughts is very helpful. Like you say, they can be so loud and hard to ignore at times. May I ask a follow-up question: How does one discern when to actually listen to those thoughts, and when to just ignore them. For there may be genuine instances that actually require one to act on those thoughts. So in a way, it becomes a fear of not making the right decision in regard to those thoughts. I suppose this is the hindrance of uncertainty/doubt rearing its ugly head.

@DhammaVinayaPatipada 2 ай бұрын

Very happy it might have been helpful. Definitely, doomsday thoughts can be quite loud at times. That's a good question. It sounds like a good one for a Dhamma discussion. There's no real formula to say when one should listen to worries and when one shouldn't. A couple of points can be worth considering, though: 1. Has this worry come up many times in the past and turned out to be false? If so, it's probably reasonable to put it aside. 2. Is there anything reasonable one can do to stop this worry? If not, then one can put it aside. 3. Is this worry coming up in meditation? If so, one can put it aside while meditating 4. Has one already come up with a plan and undertaken appropriate actions to avoid the scenario? If so, one can put it aside. The faculty of faith can be very important in overcoming worry as well. One develops faith that so long as one does good, good things will come. Although, one can't say how or when this may be the case. After this, one takes one step at a time into an unknown future. Intuition is very important in these cases as well.

@One_In_Training 2 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for your detailed reply 🙏