Does positive thinking really work?
Yes, but before we can unequivocally answer that question, we need to define what positive thinking really is and it most certainly is not negative thinking (the double negative is most positively intentional). Positive thought is not a collection of available facts and memories, leading to the distorted belief that you are a failure. You are simply not the sum-total of your mistakes.
Positive thinking is also not a sprinkle of fairy dust. You can’t just feel it, will it, invite it, or conjure it up into existence, when you want to.
Positive thought must be built every single day. In good times, as in bad. In rain, and in sunshine. In a rainbow or a thunder cloud.
Positive thinking must be constructed every day, by stacking one solitary brick upon another. We are not building a wall here (that’s the other type of thinking). We are constructing a majestic tower.
A tower that will allow us to see things as they will be, not as they are. A structure we can only imagine and dream of in part, when our feet are insecurely planted on the ground below us.
Our dreams slowly begin to take flight when we take a step to the next floor, which was constructed through positive thinking, validation, determination, and hard work.
We will certainly be happier on the next floor, but we will never be fully satisfied. Our human nature forbids it. Our nature wills that we remain perpetually hungry. It urges us to see more, to be more, and to do more. The world we inherited will forever be brimming with a life full of infinite possibilities.
Positive thought is also not a substitute for hard work and talent. If you want to learn how to tango, you will have to move your body, like you’ve never moved it before. You will have to strengthen your muscles, and develop your core. You will have to learn to hear the music; differently. You will have to develop a sense of anticipation. You will need to find the courage to lead, and the humility to follow.
Positive thinking is not fairy dust and it doesn’t absolve us from hard work.
Positive thinking is a perpetual desire to fulfill our destiny. A desire that is based on the possibility of an unwritten future, and not the distorted reality of the present moment. We can never know where our steps will be leading us, but without those steps, we will never have the opportunity to find out.
Sitting alone in your room, feeling sorry for yourself, dreaming of one day finding a lovely creature you can connect with on a deeply emotional and spiritual level, is not enough. Dreaming of someone to hold, to admire, to support, and to share your life with, will not materialize on its own. Nothing will happen sitting or lying down. I know, because I tried. I tried for too many years
All that will happen is that you’ll spend more and more time at home. You will nap and sleep a little more. Eat a little more. Dig a whole of loneliness and sadness, a little more.
Sitting alone in your room only leads to more late-night pizza deliveries, more seclusion, more day dreaming, and bit more of the same.
Positive thinking is what gets you out of your room.
Nothing can happen in your room.
But outside. There. Where your sprit dares not tread. On the outside of the unknown. On the edge of opportunity. You might awaken the world of possibilities.
Scary possibilities, yes. Uncomfortable prospects. An uncertain future.
You will have to become who you have never been, in order to live the life, you have never had.
You can only encounter people in your room. They cannot invade your space uninvited. We have some pretty good laws against that.
In my case, negative thinking led me to slow and steady weight gain.
What I have learned from the experience is that your weight doesn’t determine your human value. There is no room for compromise when it comes to your human dignity, but being overweight is a definite sign that you simply don’t love yourself. Not enough to get some fresh air, anyway.
Who in their right mind, unless they are themselves as desperate as you, wants to date a long-term project? Who wants to eat spoiled fruit? Embrace a soiled mind?
What artist, with two good ears that is, wants to begin their experience with a torn canvas, cheap diluted paints, and a frail brush?
Positive thinking is very important. It is vital if we are to build our dreams, and get out of basement of our parental refuge.
Positive thought happens in two ways.
First, you need to quit. You need to quit gossiping, wasting time, over eating, smoking, and over indulging.
Make a list. Quit everything.
You have to change your habits, and even quit your pissy friends. You may even have to leave your job, and for God’s sake, quit having so many damn naps.
Second, you need to read and listen to inspiriting books and insightful speakers.
If you’re like me, you need a constant stream of reminders. The more the better.
I need to know that there is someone doing what they love, following their dreams.
Shaking their thing.
I need to know that it all works. I need to know that I am loved; redeemed. I need to believe that stumbling and tripping over your feet, over and over again, is just part of the fabric of success.
I want to know that this will work for me, as it will work for you. I need to keep my gaze on the mountain, and not on my bare, callused feet.
I need to keep trying. I need to dig the possibilities.
We are afforded one life.
It is all we really need. At some point. At any point of our lives. No matter who we are, or how dark a place we find ourselves, we need to drum up the courage to finally create a life we were meant to live.
Positive thinking is the key. It feeds the mind and strengthens the soul.
Positive thoughts are beautiful bricks. They were left here for us by God; by the architect and builder. They were left behind so we can become co-creators. Friends, not subjects.
Let’s help each other build a tower of infinite possibility.
Let us tear down the wall that suffocates our soul.
