Is Positive Thinking Bad?
The following chapter is from Limit Breaker: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
Positive thinking is not necessarily bad.
It’s a good stepping stone to loosen the grip of negative thinking.
But what’s more powerful than positive thinking is acceptance as a whole.
This is what gives a strong attitude.
Learning meditation in college was confusing.
I accidentally stumbled into it one day.
As a novice meditator, I thought the goal was to shut off the mind.
Thought the goal was to be empty.
Tried that a few times.
But it didn’t work for me.
During my time trying to shut off thoughts, I noticed something.
‘What?’
A lot of thoughts are nonsense.
Meaning, that they are completely random.
Some serve utility.
But a lot of thoughts are just random.
As I got older, I realized meditation is best when you do not try to eliminate thoughts.
Rather, you learn to co-exist with your thoughts.
Positive & negative thoughts are welcomed.
In either case, acceptance is met.
‘This sounds all cool & loving, but what practical use can I get from this in terms of my communication, Armani?’
Plenty.
You’ll notice right before you get called on stage to give a speech, that is when you may have your most negative thoughts.
But the speaker’s goal is to accept whatever.
The good, and the bad, does not matter.
Hoping only for positive thoughts will make you nervous.
Because at times, you may not have full control.
What’s funny is that a big part of mind management is learning to make a joke out of the mind.
Let’s say you have a mean boss who yells a lot.
At first, when he yells, you are very scared.
Even sad.
But as time passes by, you see that this boss yells at times.
Is happy at times.
Is confused at times.
Is lazy at times.
You start to understand this boss on a deeper level.
As time passes by, you start to build a bond with this boss.
You’ve seen the good & the bad of his personality.
So, the next time they yell, the new co-worker may be scared.
But you will be like, ‘that’s just Bill being Bill haha.’
That’s how it works with the mind.
We take it less seriously to gain more power over it.
When you just want positive thoughts, you lowkey condition yourself as a victim.
Why?
Because it’s the nature of the mind to give positive, negative & random thoughts.
- The goal of leveling up is to be more powerful than the thoughts.
The more power you gain over it through acceptance, the more your thoughts can serve practical purpose.
Same with a lot of us who have smartphones.
Often, we can spot garbage from a mile away.
If you have a semblance of media literacy, you can spot propaganda with ease.
So, we spot the negative content and accept that it exists behind the screen.
While we, the human, remains unaffected.
We move on.
But if you say something silly like:
‘Oh no, I see a propaganda piece on my phone. The propaganda piece is negative. And since it is on my phone, then I must be negative too!’
Then you will be living a very turbulent life.
Remember this…
If the good opinions get to your head.
Then the mean opinions get to your heart.
Remain unaffected.
Take away power from your mind to gain mastery over your mind.
Was positive thinking bad?
Not quite.
But the coin has more than 1 side.
-Rather than seeing heads or tails, see the coin.
-Rather than seeing the waves, see the ocean.
-Rather than seeing the diversity, see the unity that rests behind all of that.
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