Is releasing your negative thoughts in this way morally wrong?

[Holly3278]

Hi everyone. I just read a thing on Facebook which said that one way to release your negative thoughts is to symbolically place them on a leaf in a stream and watch them float away. There are other similar ways of doing this. Well, this kind of strikes me as a New Age type of thing but I could be wrong. Would there be anything wrong with releasing negative thoughts in this manner?

 

[Della]

If he helps release tension, I think it’s okay. However, it’s hardly a long-term solution for frustrating circumstances. A better thought process would be to think of whatever is troubling you as locked away in the tabernacle with Our Lord where he will deal with it instead of us. That really does the job since Jesus really is there and really does give us the grace to let go of worry and stress. Also, praying a decade of the rosary. Not that you don’t do these things, but I think the leaf going downstream thing is less effective, if basically harmless.

 

[laircy]

I don’t find it particularly objectionable. Once, at Reconciliation, we did a similar symbolic thing. Before individual confession they let us get in a line to write with our finger in a bowl of sand what we wanted to wipe away, and then did.

 

[Holly3278]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I appreciate them.

 

[MidnightSun12]

Hi everyone. I just read a thing on Facebook which said that one way to release your negative thoughts is to symbolically place them on a leaf in a stream and watch them float away. There are other similar ways of doing this. Well, this kind of strikes me as a New Age type of thing but I could be wrong. Would there be anything wrong with releasing negative thoughts in this manner?

It might be helpful to also involve God somehow in your imagery. I mean, at the end of the day it’s God who takes these sinful thoughts away from us when we let Him (maybe you could mentally equate the stream to God’s Divine Will).

I, personally, like to offer negative thoughts up to God and ask Him to take them away from me. For example, I sometimes imagine myself holding a “ball of negativity” over my head and asking God to lift it away from me. When the thoughts are particularly persistent/tempting, I will ask God to come over me and I will imagine Him standing above me forcing the army of Demons that are closing in away with His light!

 

[Holly3278]

It might be helpful to also involve God somehow in your imagery. I mean, at the end of the day it’s God who takes these sinful thoughts away from us when we let Him (maybe you could mentally equate the stream to God’s Divine Will).

I, personally, like to offer negative thoughts up to God and ask Him to take them away from me. For example, I sometimes imagine myself holding a “ball of negativity” over my head and asking God to lift it away from me. When the thoughts are particularly persistent/tempting, I will ask God to come over me and I will imagine Him standing above me forcing the army of Demons that are closing in away with His light!

Thanks for the reply. I do like the idea of simply handing all of my negative thoughts over to God.

 

[feargalmac]

My mother taught me to “Let go and let God”. In other words when things get on top of me I stop and realise that without God I can do nothing, but with His help anything is possible. It helps me think things out.

 

[Dorothy]

If he helps release tension, I think it’s okay. However, it’s hardly a long-term solution for frustrating circumstances. A better thought process would be to think of whatever is troubling you as locked away in the tabernacle with Our Lord where he will deal with it instead of us. That really does the job since Jesus really is there and really does give us the grace to let go of worry and stress. Also, praying a decade of the rosary. Not that you don’t do these things, but I think the leaf going downstream thing is less effective, if basically harmless.

Thank you! That makes a lot more sense, as we are leaving it to the Lord who is all-merciful and all-powerful!

 

[Holly3278]

Thanks again everyone. I really like the idea of locking our troubles away in the tabernacle for Jesus to take care of.

 

[HonoraDominum]

The way that my priest told me to do this kind of visualization is to ask your Guardian Angel to take the thoughts and to lay them on the altar at my church. Offer them as a sacrifice to God and give them to Him to carry and to own.

Here’s the great part about this visualization - once you have given it to God, it is no longer yours. You can’t take it back, as it is now His. So if, for example, you are feeling a great deal of anger towards another person, you say a prayer and ask your guardian angel to take this anger to the altar and to offer it to God, for the conversion of Souls. I always imagine wrapping the sacrifice up in old paper and tying it with ribbon, in a little bundle, to make it more pleasing to God. And when you find yourself dwelling on those thoughts again, just say to yourself, “No, that’s God’s now, I can’t own that feeling [worry, anger, etc.]”

One of the best sermons I ever heard on Audio Sancto deals with another type of prayer to offer to God when you are finding yourself with a burden you cannot carry. The first part of this sermon is pretty intense, but the part at the end with spiritual contracts and asking God to help you with crosses changed my life.

Overcoming Sin with Spiritual Contracts

 

[WingsOfEagles]

Hi everyone. I just read a thing on Facebook which said that one way to release your negative thoughts is to symbolically place them on a leaf in a stream and watch them float away. There are other similar ways of doing this. Well, this kind of strikes me as a New Age type of thing but I could be wrong. Would there be anything wrong with releasing negative thoughts in this manner?

I don’t think there is something specifically wrong with it if the act of doing some helps someone with his/her therapy. However, it should be recognize that this is a purely symbolic act and that there is no “witchcraft” or “magic” involved with this.