Positivity is a booming industry. Thousands of books, countless blogs and news stories, untold quantities of internet memes, and quite a bit of legitimate science sing the praises of happiness and positive thinking. This sentiment is not new, of course. Its roots precede the modern era, appearing in some form in the writings of Aristotle; the 1950s saw the publication of Dr Norman Vincent Peale’s bestselling book on the topic, The Power of Positive Thinking; and Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret attributed magical powers to positive thinking in the mid-2000s.
In fact, it appears that positivity’s stock may be past its prime. The stack of books questioning the value of positivity (among them, Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-sided, Gabriele Oettingen’s Rethinking Positive Thinking, and Todd Kashden and Robert Biswas-Diener’s The Upside of Your Dark Side) is beginning to rival the stack touting the benefits of happiness and positive thinking. Might positivity have a downside?
The downside of positivity is that it doesn’t last. I was a very optimistic child initially and then years of horrible just chipped away at it until there was nothing left. You can only try to “think positive” for so long.
Positivity is nothing but a way for people to make money, it is not an effective treatment or solution for anything, and it is not a permanent mindset to have. It has simply been twisted and marketed in a way that people actually believe all of this ■■■■■■■■.
If positive thinking was as effective and useful as they say, humanity would not suffer from all of the problems that it does. Also, it pays to notice that those who do promote positive thinking will eventually come to realise that it is not the wonderful solution that they once thought it was, and they will continue to live their life as they always have done.
“Be positive!” “Positive thinking is all you need!”
Let’s see how far thinking that way will get you. You are doing nothing but lying to yourself.
I think thinking positive is bad. But being positive is entirely different.
Thinking positive = tomorrow will be great.
Being positive = it is already.
Being positive means you can turn things around when things are going south. But thinking positive is like just expecting it to.
The world needs more humanity than it does positive thinking. It needs people who are more positive in the sense that they carry themselves with a certainty that problems can be fixed.
Most people probably (like the ones who like to sell this stuff in books) already have an abundance so have little to worry about. They’re not positive people because if they were put in a terrible environment they’d probably crumble.
I guess it depends how far you think positively. For example if I think via positive thoughts that I’m going to turn into a 60 year old natural woman tomorrow then I’m undoubtedly delusional.
It all depends on how you apply the positivity. If you’re happy with what you have, and expect to get only what you need, your positivity will make you happy. If you think all your great big smiles will get you diamonds, you’ll probably be dissappointed. Personally, I count myself lucky to live at a time of unprecedented abundance, and I think that in spite of all the hazards, things will continue to get better.
I just think I’m a realist. I’m interested in the truth and looking at everything whether it’s pretty or not. I think it’s unbalanced to try to focus on positive; like a sort of denial.
After a quarter century in AA I can tell you that it doesn’t. I’ve seen so many Sad Sacks at meetings. They only ever complain. They only ever explain why the program can’t work for them. You never see them recover while they are in that negative state (which, ironically, is a positive feedback loop).
The ones who adopt our motto of fake it 'til you make it, they really start to fly, and so much sooner than most would believe possible. After a while they’re no longer faking it, but genuinely happy with a positive outlook. This positivity makes them much more desirable as friends and business acquaintances and all kinds of opportunities open up to them. The success really happens. Seen it so many times and I never stop being blown away by the awesomeness of it all.
Your brain is an organic computer. These ‘positivity materials’ are simply tools you can use to reprogram yourself from a negative outlook to a positive one. To turn bad habits into good habits.
I just can’t say enough about the power of positivity. So glad I’m getting myself back into that space. Feels wonderful.
Yes! A negative experience can become a stepping-stone to help you reach higher. Or it can be a stone to wear around your neck to weigh you down for life. It’s an individual choice.
There is no downside to positive thinking (optimism). Why does the FDA require a placebo group? Why not test the effectiveness of medications against a skeptical group? Would results change? Why are all of the 500 wealthiest people in the world considered optimists?
Yeah, maybe it’s better to have a pessimistic attitude. Let’s not go to university because we’re all going to die anyway.
They’re optimists? I think they’re just lucky scumbags who have no real sense of humanness. Most of them anyway. If they lost everything they had and fell under the pressure of that… they were never optimistic.
To me the only true wealth is contentedness.
“Health is wealth”. That thought occurred to me before. Sure enough it is indeed a quote common to the more virtuous.
I’m actually pretty optimistic in regards to “success”, but that optimism doesn’t skew or change the cultures tendencies to like mundane and inane crap. So what could a person do to be successful if their creative works aren’t accepted by society?
Looking at Van Gogh’s works and his quotes he indeed was optimistic but that didn’t keep him from having to get by on scraps.
And people should make up their mind… “Do what you love doing.” they say. Well again I reiterate, what if what you do isn’t going to help you score big and live a luxurious life? Just seems people say what they say so they can leave others in the dust when all is going well for themselves.
Mindless drivel like “The secret” didn’t help the positivity cause. Ultimately I think positivism has to be balanced with realism or it dips its toes in the sea of delusion.
True, but positivity helps tip the odds in one’s favour. It is much more fun to fail epically than to not have tried at all. You wind up with some fun campfire stories, if nothing else.
Yeah that’s the annoying thing. Whenever you see those books on people who are like “just think and be positive!” They have like no issues. They’re rich, they’re successful, no mental illness, etc. Like yeah sure it’s easy for you to be positive.
Positivity can lead to the worst pain for me. I get overly confident about something and then when it fails, boom crash down. On most days I’m like optimistic half the time, pessimistic half the time.
