Pratipaksha Bhavana: Transforming Negative Thoughts

This powerful guided meditation is rooted in the yogic teaching of Pratipaksha Bhavana from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—an ancient practice of consciously replacing negative or unhelpful thoughts with their opposite, life-affirming counterparts.

In this session, you’ll be gently guided to observe the inner patterns of judgment, fear, or doubt, and skillfully shift them into peace, love, and clarity. Using awareness, reflection, and heart-based affirmations, this practice invites you to rewire your inner dialogue and return to your highest truth.

Perfect for times when the mind feels heavy, reactive, or overwhelmed—this meditation helps you find your center, strengthen emotional resilience, and cultivate a compassionate, empowered state of being.

Transcript

Hello everyone.

My name is Mandeep and this is a meditation for removing negative thoughts.

Anytime we have a thought that doesn't seem to leave the brain,

It's circling around,

Draining our energy,

Today's meditation will help remove that negative thought.

We use a very traditional technique for this meditation.

It's called Pratipaksha Bhavana.

It's written in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali.

This technique is simply flipping the negative thought once you recognize it into a positive counterpart.

Pratipaksha has two words.

Prati means opposite,

Paksha means side,

And Bhavana means meditation.

So meditating on the opposite side of the thought that you want to remove is what this technique is about.

So let's get started.

Allow yourself to arrive in a position that feels comfortable.

If you're seated,

You want support behind you,

You can add support behind you.

If you want to lie down,

You want to have a recline,

Whatever helps you be comfortable.

And then let yourself settle.

Let yourself arrive.

Connect with the room that you're in.

What do you feel underneath you?

What do you sense on your skin,

On your face?

And then take your focus towards your breath.

Noticing how the breath is moving in your nostrils,

How the inhale enters the nostrils,

How the exhale leaves the nostrils.

That's it.

Using the breath in your nostrils as the object of meditation.

Notice if there's a sound to this breath in the nostrils.

Notice if the sound is different when you inhale and exhale.

And as you're observing your breath in the nostrils,

See if something changed.

Is the breath slightly different now?

And then take your focus away from the breath and then turn your palms up towards the ceiling.

You can rest your hands on your thighs.

If you're seating,

If you're lying down,

You can keep your arms alongside your body.

But turn the palms up towards the sky.

And now we will move into a meditation technique known as Kirtan Kriya,

Also known as the Sata Nama meditation.

We do this meditation by tapping the thumb to your index finger of both hands on Sa and then tap the thumb to the middle finger on Ta.

And then thumb to the ring finger on Na and then thumb to the pinky finger on Ma.

We will do it together six times out loud,

Six times as a whisper,

Six times in your mind and six times whisper again.

I keep the count,

You follow along.

So here we go.

Sata Nama Sata Nama Sata Nama Now whisper.

Now in your mind.

Whisper again.

And then you pause,

Turn your palms upside down and just stay there with the steadiness that you feel inside your mind.

This beautiful technique helps bring more clarity to the mind.

It helps remove brain fog.

It gives you more power,

More control of your chitta,

Of your mind.

So just sit there with the steadiness you have created inside you.

And then bring your focus back to your breath.

Notice the breath.

Notice how the breath is moving.

Where is it going to?

Inside your body.

What part of the body do you feel moving with the breath?

Bringing a connection of the breath and the body.

And again,

Noticing as you are observing the breath in your body now,

Has the breath started changing?

Is it getting calmer,

Slower,

Longer?

Just keep observing the breath.

Two more rounds of breathing.

Now we will move into a breath work where we will start with an equal counted breath to the count of four.

And then we will increase the count of exhale by one each round.

So here we go.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Do one last round on your own.

Maybe you go up to eight.

Maybe you stay at seven.

And then let the breath settle,

Calm,

Noticing how the breath is moving on its own now.

Maybe you got a little deeper.

And now take the focus away from your breathing and bring it to the crown of your head.

Bring it to the crown of your head.

We're going to move through a body scan relaxation to enter a deeper,

Relaxed state of being.

So start with the crown of your head.

Focus on the crown of your head.

And relax the crown of your head.

Relax the crown of your head.

And then focus on your forehead.

And relax your forehead.

Relax your forehead.

Focus on your jaws.

Relax your jaw.

Relax your jaw.

Focus on your shoulders.

And relax your shoulders.

Relax your shoulders.

Focus on your upper arms.

Relax your upper arms.

Relax your upper arms.

Focus on your forearms.

Relax your forearms.

Relax your forearms.

Focus on your hands.

Relax your hands.

Relax your hands.

Focus on your chest.

And relax your chest.

Relax your chest.

Focus on your upper back.

And relax your upper back.

Relax your upper back.

Focus on your abdomen.

Relax your abdomen.

Relax your abdomen.

Focus on your lower back.

Relax your lower back.

Relax your lower back.

Focus on your hips.

Relax your hips.

Relax your hips.

Focus on your thighs.

Relax your thighs.

Relax your thighs.

Focus on your calves.

Relax your calves.

Relax your calves.

Focus on your feet.

And relax your feet.

Relax your feet.

Focus on the soles of your feet.

And relax the soles of your feet.

Relax the soles of your feet.

Now feel the whole body fully relaxed.

The whole body entering a deeper,

Healthier state of being.

The whole body entering a relaxed,

Your natural state of being.

And then take your focus away from your body and bring it to your head.

And go inside your head.

Maybe you start behind your eyes and start going deeper,

Deeper,

Deeper to the center of your head.

Behind your eyes,

In between your ears,

Is the center of your head.

See yourself standing in the center of your head.

And then take a moment to see what's going on inside your head.

Ask yourself,

How busy is my mind right now?

And as you ask that question,

If the mind starts getting even busier,

That's okay.

Let it get busier.

Just stand in the center of your head and observe how busy is my mind right now.

And once you notice that,

Maybe you give it a number.

From 0 to 100,

See at what number is the busyness of your mind.

100 being very busy,

0 being very calm.

Where is your mind right now?

Maybe 70,

Maybe 50,

Maybe 100.

Give the busyness of your mind a number.

And once you have a number,

You visualize at the bottom corner of your mind,

There is a tiny dial.

And this dial represents the busyness of your mind.

Set this dial to the number of the busyness of your mind right now.

So if it is 70,

You set the dial to 70.

Now this dial controls how busy your mind is.

So start lowering the dial by around 20%,

See what happens to the mind.

Just see,

Have fun with it.

Maybe you lower it down another 10%,

See what happens to the mind.

And then lower it all the way down to 0,

Just for a microsecond,

See if there's silence.

Now go back to the center of your mind and ask your mind,

What is that one negative thought that you want to release?

Wait for the mind to give you the answer.

If there are more than one thoughts that come,

Then pick the one that's bothering you the most.

Now,

It could be a recent thought,

It could be one of the oldest negative thoughts that you've been trying to release for a very long time.

But pick the one that's bothering you the most right now.

And let all the other thoughts fade away.

Take this negative thought and start circling the thought around inside your head.

Start circling it around inside your head.

Maybe you watch the words circling around.

Maybe you're repeating it to yourself in the mind.

And as this negative thought is circling inside your head,

Notice how you're feeling in your body.

Where is that emotion inside your body?

Just for a moment.

And then you pause.

And then again,

Go back deep,

Deep,

Deep in the center of your mind.

That is the seat of your higher intelligence.

So deep in the center of your mind.

Connect with your higher intelligence.

And ask your higher intelligence to give you a positive counter to this negative thought.

For example,

I once had a thought,

I'm not worthy.

And then the positive counter I was able to create for that thought was,

I am worthy of achieving all my dreams.

It could be one word,

It could be one sentence.

So ask your higher intelligence.

It's right there in the center of your mind to give you a positive counter to this negative thought you have.

Wait for it.

Once your higher mind gives you the positive counter,

Now start repeating this positive thought inside your mind.

Now maybe you're seeing it circling as letters,

As words,

Or you're repeating this positive counter to yourself in your mind.

Just keep doing it again and again.

Circle the positive thought inside your mind again and again.

Continue breathing.

Continue repeating this positive thought inside your mind.

And then as you're repeating,

Notice,

Is there anything inside the body that's changing?

Do you feel a different emotion inside your body as you're repeating this thought inside your mind?

Now connect with that emotion inside your body and allow this positive emotion to expand through the whole body.

Let it get bigger,

Bigger,

Bigger,

And expand through the whole body.

Now take a deep breath in and bring in more positive energy with that inhale.

And allow that positive energy to sink in on your exhale.

We'll do it again.

Bring more positive energy with your breath in.

Feel it entering the body.

And allow the energy to sink deep inside your cells and tissues on the breath out.

Inhale,

Positive energy enters.

Exhale,

It sinks into the cells and the tissues.

One last time.

Inhale,

Positive energy enters.

Exhale,

It sinks into your cells and your tissues.

Nice.

And then allow yourself to just stay with that breath,

However it's moving.

And then slowly start connecting with the space that you're in.

Noticing your surroundings,

Sensing what's touching underneath you.

How does that feel?

On your skin,

On your face,

The air,

How does that feel?

If you want to make any movements in the body,

Your fingers,

Your toes,

You want to stretch maybe the neck.

And then when you're ready,

You'll slowly bring your hands to your heart center.

And you gently bow down to close the practice.

Namaste.

You can open your eyes when you feel ready to do so.

This was the practice of Pratipaksha Bhavana.

And that's what has been written in those ancient yoga texts called yoga sutras.

You pick one negative thought,

You find a positive counter,

And you repeat the positive thought again and again and again.

And this is how you rewire your brain.

If it doesn't happen once,

You try again.

You do this meditation two times.

Three times.

Four times.

As many times as you need to rewire your brain.

We'll see you guys in the next meditation.

Thank you.

Reviews

This is a beautifully empowering meditation to help you release and reframe negative thoughts.