The Positive Thinker By Garrett Davis

We are often advised to be more positive in our thoughts. While this may sound like a good idea on the surface, we must first ask the question of, "why"? Why should we think more positively? What does it matter? How does positive thinking affect our reality, or does it at all? Won’t the outside world be the same whether we chose to think positively about it or not?

We know now scientifically that our thoughts literally affect things around us. Conscious observation affects the behavior of particles in quantum physical experiments, and, everything that exists is made up of these particles. Positive thoughts can be measured and compared in frequency to negative thoughts. Positive thinking strengthens us while negative thinking weakens us.

Despite the evidence that our thoughts do in fact affect our reality in a very real way, most people neglect to actively shape their thought patterns on a regular basis. This is because we are subjected mostly only to very subtle evidence that our thought vibrations affect the world around us. We simply don’t experience ourselves literally changing, say, an apple into an orange simply by thinking about it. The more insightful, however, will often observe our ability to metaphorically turn lemons into lemonade, simply by the nature of our thought reactions to challenging circumstances in our lives.

To understand what it means to be a positive thinker we must first understand that the idea of positive thinking does not conflict with the idea of living in reality. I recently ran into a friend of mine at the end of his work day one afternoon when I asked him how his day was and how he was doing. His reply to me was a far too typical, "oh, okay, I guess". When I asked him what was troubling him he explained to me that he had been out running errands all day for his boss and that he had heard about how a mother and daughter were murdered in a near by city and that a police officer was shot in another. He had just gotten done being bombarded by this type of horrific news for the better part of the day. He was listening to talk radio while driving and had let the incessantly negative news media get him down. I asked him if he knew any of the people who had been murdered or if he knew anybody who knew them. When he answered that he hadn’t, I remarked to him that there is really no reason for him to even know about the murders and that he shouldn’t even allow himself to listen to such negative news when so easily avoidable. It’s not as if he shouldn’t have sympathy for the victims and their families, but rather that the murders are for the victim’s friends, families, police and detectives to know about, not him.

Part of having a positive mind-set involves not meddling in other peoples unfortunate affairs. All too often, the news media lures us in to doing just that. Anyways, I told my friend that he should find another radio station to listen to. His reply to me was that he wasn’t the type to "just bury his head in the sand".

Positive thinking should in no way involve, "burying your head in the sand". To be a positive thinker does not mean that you will attempt to avoid dealing with the realities of life. Those truly positive in their thoughts not only deal with reality, but do so with confidence and efficiency. However, such individuals often do avoid unnecessary situations that they know have the potential to adversely affect their mind-set. For example, I avoid the gratuitously negative radio and television news stations that I know will just give me quick and shocking sounds bites of violence and despair with no real value in the information that they are presenting. To listen to such news would be a waste of my valuable time and would conflict with my agreement with reality. I chose not to lend my attention to such repugnance because my mind-set is that of positivity. My mind gently directs me away from that which will not be of benefit to me. It is not as if the positive thinker abandons reality, it is just that the reality chosen and observed is different than it would be for someone of a different mind-set.

A positive mind-set should act as a mental filter of sorts. It should gracefully steer you away from that which will adversely affect your mental state and toward that which will be of benefit to you. To reiterate, this does not entail not dealing with reality. You will simply chose to deal with reality in a way that is most beneficial. If, for example, you have found yourself in a lot of credit card debt, you will not just mentally avoid the realities of the debt and keep spending away, but rather you will take a positive outlook towards a resolution to the problem. You will envision yourself as a debt free person and eventually come to believe that you can in fact be free of debt. Your positivity towards resolution will allow you to set up a repayment plan. Once the plan is in place you will be able to more effortlessly and naturally work toward moving your mind-set away from that of debt and scarcity and towards that of abundance and prosperity. Positive thinking entails finding resolutions and sticking to them. The positive thinker never dwells in thoughts of how bad something is, rather, he or she simply works to find a solution.

The same type of thinking applies to dealing with troubled relationships as well. If you are focusing on what frustrates you about your spouse, mother, father, son, daughter, co-worker, or whoever, that frustration will grow and expand. When you focus on what you don’t like about a person, it’s like holding a magnifying glass up to those things. They get bigger, and more problematic. A positive mind-set works to filter out the negative while simultaneously redirecting your attention to the positive. Focus on what you like about that person, or if they are so odious that you can’t even imagine doing that, then strive for a position of neutrality towards them while simultaneously redirecting your focus to those people who bring you joy.

It is important to realize that your reality will not be the same whether you chose to think positively or not. The positive thinker always experiences a much different reality than the negative thinker. Not only will the person with the positive outlook perceive reality differently, but reality itself will be different for that person. Thoughts are the seeds of actions, and if those seeds contain negatively charged thoughts of fear, regret, incompetence, sorrow, scarcity, then your actions will coincide with such and you will come to experience the coinciding reality. If, however, the seeds that are your thoughts are infused with positively charged feelings of confidence, abundance, prosperity, happiness, peace, then your actions and thus your reality will come to coincide with abundance, prosperity, happiness and peace.

If we are not in some way positive in our outlook then we have no hope for change. When we don’t have hope, we abandon effort. When a problem arises, hope can always be found in positivity. Think a positive thought and hope will be provided to you, free of charge.

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