What does your inner self tell you?
Do you take the time to hear? Do you listen?
I was speaking with someone I work with about this last week and much to my great surprise, he indicated that he tries not to spend much time at all looking inwardly and listening to his inner self; his reason is that he finds it too confronting and difficult to deal with. I found this to be very curious and somewhat alarming considering his position in the company, the fact he is perceived to be professionally successful and has a personal life some may seem as desirable. Ho deceiving outward impressions can be.
I have often delved into my thoughts and feelings and not liked the reality of what I found there. Confronting, frightening, awkward and many other words could be used to describe the feelings, but I looked regardless and have been able to deal with many moments and aspects of life that, had I ignored, would have gone badly.
Denial of our thoughts, emotions and feelings is something we've all done however I wonder if it's healthy.
Denial is a well-used human trait and can be very productive; a person denying a food they are allergic to perhaps, or a person denying their feeling of laziness to get up and exercise when they do not fee like doing it; but denying that one's innermost thoughts, emotions and feelings exist can, in my opinion, only lead to trouble.
A certain amount of introspection is healthy but I think dwelling upon negative thoughts and feelings is counterproductive. Some thoughts are best kept where they belong...innermost.
Yes, dwelling on negative rarely inspires the positive, just in the same way ignoring one's thoughts can do the same.
Our society is built so that we no longer have the time to listen. We are bombarded with tasks, and by the time they're done, we prefer the comfort of distractions.
I read a book on meditation, how to achieve peace, and it was fascinating to see that back in the 70s, "thinking" and taking time to be alone was considered a daily activity. Now, people don't even consider it.
And then, once they DO! -- they are in denial...
I agree with your distractions comment, and so many of those distractions are counterproductive to development, growth and a person's general life.