The Power of Positive Thinking
When we're young, we are constantly told the magic words of "no", "don't" and "you can't". While these words can protect us from bad things happening to us, it starts a string of negative thoughts that can continue through childhood, adolescence and even into adulthood. Parents should decrease the amount of negative words and phrases as children grow older and replace them with words of encouragement as the need for protection decreases. I have observed that this is rarely the case.
It's difficult to break the cycle of negativity in anyone's life, including our own, because we have become conditioned to expect it. We are programmed, in a sense, to expect and think negative thoughts and have negative emotions. This conditioning, as it is stored in our brains, is similar to how we store and retrieve memories.
Have you ever been to a cafeteria or an "all you can eat" type of buffet restaurant? Do you remember how the plates are stacked in a cylinder with the freshest, cleanest plates being on top and the ones that have been out longer are pushed down toward the bottom of the cylinder? You can't get to the plates at the bottom and most people don't want to get to them. You pull the one off the top because it's the easiest to get to. Our memories and thought processes work the same way with the freshest thoughts and memories being the easiest to gain access to. Only after sifting through the freshest can we get to the ones that are not so fresh.
It's also a matter of balance. Imagine a bowl full of negative thoughts and memories. Now imagine a bowl halfway full of positive thoughts and memories. Hold the negative in your left hand and hold the positive in your right hand. If you're making a choice based on amount and weight, not knowing which one is which, which one would you draw from?
We need to practice thinking positive thoughts and spend time specifically recalling positive memories. We need to stack the new plates on top of the old ones to push the negativity further down the cylinder. We need to fill the positivity bowl to make it fuller and heavier than the negative one. Only then can we pull out the freshest, positive thoughts and memories which are nearest to the top and have the most weight in our lives.
Over the past few years, I have been practicing exactly those things. I believe it has enabled me to write about things that I consider positive and hesitate to write about things that are negative. I sleep better and sounder these days than I did ten years ago. I've learned to turn negative emotions into positive opportunities. Sometimes, I purposely write about negative thoughts, memories, emotions and experiences so that I can bring them out into the light and examine them closely. By doing so, I can apply age and wisdom to those items and store them back as more positive items.
This is the real power of positive thinking. It enables us to remove or replace the negative with the positive which further enables us to do things (and write things) that benefit us and not the other way around.
Perhaps, because I'm not an expert in the psychoanalytical field, I'm completely wrong in my analysis. What do you think? Is there a better way to explain it? Do you have a better analogy that's more precise? I'm all ears (or in this case, all eyes).
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I'm putting this aside as a must read post for this week's wrap up, RT. That's exactly how I feel about positive thinking. You put it into better words than I could.
I remember one of my sales trainers who caught me one day, putting a cross on a contract and saying to the customer "sign here". He pulled me aside after the customer left, and explained it was better to put a tick, because when you were in school, a cross meant you got something wrong, and a tick meant you got something right. I had never even considered it but he's right – to see a cross can bring up a whole bunch of negative thoughts. And even seemingly tiny things like this make a huge difference.
But to change from putting a cross to a tick required thinking about it, at first. As time went on the more I did it, the less conscious it became.
I have a to do list, I never cross things off it, I tick them off. It's an accomplishment and an achievement.
I practice thinking positive thoughts and I have little cards with positive affirmations on them. If there's a thought I need to work on, I write it down on post it notes and put it everywhere – on the fridge, on my desk, places I sit, on the tv screens, and even located in a strategic place in the bathroom. It's like an all out campaign. 
These are some of the ways you can make positive changes in your life. Great post. I stumbled it.
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/
I put an empty square next to each item on a "to-do" list and then put a check mark in the box when a task is completed. I throw away the paper when all of the boxes are filled.
I used to just cross them off the list by drawing a line or two through them, but that too creates negative thoughts because it makes the remainder stand out. If there's a lot, you don't feel like you're accomplishing much.
i think you've got it RT. the only thing i would say is that rather than pushing those negative memories down below the surface, we should try to clear them…most of these negative experiences leave us with negative beliefs about ourselves, others or even about things such as $$$. the negative beliefs can then get in the way of living the lives we want without our ever knowing it…there are many ways to clear them…if you'd like more information on that, just let me know!
Perhaps it's not the best analogy, but we can never actually remove memories and the thoughts that go with them — but we can change them and I think that's important.
hmmm…I could have sworn this was a Scott post, I was surprised when I saw RT wrote it.
I agree with the statements made in this post, I have heard that you should avoid negative terms when dealing with children, instead try to turn it into something positive, or stress the things they CAN do instead of focusing on the things the "CAN'T" do…
Good post RT.
What you said here makes great sense to me RT. Very well said as a matter of fact. I'm no expert, but I too try to stay on the positive side of the fence because the other side is just plain depressing. Excellent post.
Exactly my blogging principle: avoid negativity which stems from my thoughts about life in general.
Negativity has a strange fascination for all of us and negative thinking can get very addictive. I consciously try to avoid negativity in whatever I do.
Great post, RT.
Hi RT
Great post.
You're spot on in your analysis and practice.
keep up the great work and blog!
May
For tapes on positive thinking, check out Ed Nightingale or Brian Tracy.
Very inspiring, thank you!
My latest blog post: Positive Affirmations – Create a Better Life