Social psychologist Daniel Wegner began exploring the Ironic Process Theory while studying thought suppression in 1987. This is also known to many as the White Bear Problem. I guess White Elephant was taken (tee hee). Ironic Process Theory is an abstract idea that says conscious attempts to suppress thoughts will make them more likely to surface. Trying hard to hold back certain thoughts can actually increase their frequency.
The White Bear Problem is a reference to a quote by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in an essay. He challenges the reader to do everything possible to avoid thinking of a polar bear. Try as we humans may, when told to avoid thinking of a polar bear, you know what will happen. It’s like that song you hate that won’t stop playing in your head! The curious aspect of these unwanted thoughts is that they carry an emotional charge.
Sensitive people have a great deal of emotional intelligence. If you notice you are attracting an undesirable thought, you are experiencing emotional intelligence. The cure is to call upon the blue dolphin. The blue dolphin provides a replacement thought and a tool used to shift the focus away from the white bear. You can use this strategy in almost any situation. Instead of thinking you will be nervous at the upcoming meeting, shift the thought to excitement instead.
Whatever the negative thought, replace it with something fun and welcoming. It’s a good strategy to use when transforming thoughts, behaviors, emotions, or compulsive activities. For today’s whisper, will it be white bears or blue dolphins? Let’s clear the mind and see what comes forward on the subject:
Emotions form the fabric of the soul. When trying to understand emotional intelligence, know that even the absence of an emotion is critical. Emotions are the most dynamic and fluid of all the human energies. The nature of emotional energy is one that often calls for suppression. Awareness is the antidote for unbridled behavior.
Enlightenment is the freedom from attachment or bonds to emotional energy. Experiences, both positive and negative, create bonds to people, events, and emotions. Freedom from attachments nurtures the freedom to express creatively. The ability to shift a negative toward the positive depends on many factors. The highest vibration is in the emotion of gratitude. Without the sense of gratitude, there is victimhood, entitlement, judgments, and misconception.
Separation from self-awareness occurs in a closed loop of negative emotions and thoughts. Breaking free requires a strategy described as the blue dolphin. The conscious shift occurs when the closed loop breaks. Suppression of thoughts is suppression of emotions. It can be helpful to look beneath the surface to make discoveries around the nature of the need to suppress.
Unwanted thoughts and emotions indicate a vacuum of energy exists. If the void can be filled, attachments are lifted and creativity becomes the replacement energy. Fractures and holes in the energy are the result of trauma. Some amazingly positive experiences produce fissures in the aura. Life is not as simple as positive versus negative or light versus dark. Balance is achieved through conscious integration of all experiences, for love will always fill the void.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“More than anything, it was the blue dolphins that took me back home.”
― Scott O’Dell
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