We cannot experience anything that is not already a part of our consciousness. Any disturbance that we become aware of within ourselves serves as an introduction to an aspect of our own nature that we have been asleep to up until that moment. Within us are already dwells all that is needed for us to be complete, and the only thing that is needed to resolve any psychological disturbance is awareness itself.
However, when the mind cannot recognize a disturbance, or when it thinks that it already knows what it is, the disturbance ceases to serve the purpose for which it was created. Instead it is taken over by a level of mind that believes that it can resolve the disturbance. But if we already knew what to do about stormy thoughts and feelings, then we would not be experiencing so much conflict in our lives.
A negative state takes root within us whenever we resist a disturbance. It tells us what we must do in order to resolve it so that we might finally find a resting place. However, resistance does nothing but perpetuate the illusion that the disturbance is caused by something apart from ourselves. This separation causes us to search outside of ourselves for a resolution to the conflict we feel.
We must begin to see that negative states never lead us to any kind of resolution. The only thing that negative states are interested in is their own continuity, and they will do anything at our expense to remain in charge. We must learn to inwardly say, "You have nothing that I want" to any pressurized negative state that tempts us to search outside of ourselves for an answer to any kind of psychological disturbance. The fact is that negative states do not have anything that we really want. What we really want is freedom from negative states.