“None can destroy iron, but its own rust can! Likewise none can destroy a person, but its own mindset can!”
~Ratan Tata
Rust is sneaky. It comes in slowly, without notice at first but can overwhelm and cover every inch in time. Just as your mindset can start off positive and encouraging. The negative sneaks in slowly like rust.
We used this quote as an intention in yoga. Focusing on being aware of our mindset as we flowed through class. When negative thoughts pop up, which they will, we redirected the focus back top the breath. If the negative thoughts were loud or hard to not “let go” we visualized the breath as a cloth which wiped the rust in our mind clean.
Negative thought patterns are easy to form and hard to break. So next time you catch that inner critic shouting their opinion, stop and just focus on your breath. Then visualize a cloth cleaning your brain of the rust- at the very least it might make you giggle at the image, yet also give you pause to correct and break that habit.