A State of Mind and Being

Written by Mathew Naismith

Can positive thinking lead to irrational optimism and self-deceptiveness? As of myself as I will explain latter, I never focused on being positive while experiencing trauma brought about by a chronic injury. Because I did this, I was able to accomplish tasks well beyond the boundaries set up by the mental and physical trauma I was experiencing. Just because one is not being negative doesn't mean one is being positive and visa-versa. This is likened to, just because we are not at war doesn't mean we are at peace, in actuality there is a lot that exists between war and peace, this is the same between negative and positive thinking. I actually prefer to stay away from extreme thinking processes, more is always better isn't true, in actuality moderation and balance is always better in the end.

 

I find articles like the following always interesting; they often go beyond the way we have been conditioned to think. 

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https://www.success.com/article/the-negative-side-of-positive-thinking

Extract: He’s not the only one who’s frustrated with what many see as America’s relentless push toward positivity and the treatment of happiness as a commodity. Not only can the happiness industry make us feel bad about ourselves, as it did with Wilson, critics say, it can topple an economy or worse, according to Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America. Unchecked positive thinking and “irrational optimism” led to the housing market crash in 2007, she contends.

Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, says that “positive thinking has become a sort of allergy to anything negative. We are constantly on guard against negative thoughts, so that any time we feel pessimistic or bad, we want to reassure ourselves and say everything will be fine. But each time we do that, we inadvertently enforce the notion that if things don’t turn out fine, it would be a total catastrophe.” Rather than bolstering our resilience, he says, positive thinking actually undermines it.

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Today I am astounded at what I accomplished in my life, yes, I had to work within the boundaries of trauma but at no time did I see these boundaries as being negative or a positive, they were simply limitations to either overcome or let be. Never ever look at limitations as being negative, they are simply limitations created by circumstance.

We are well and truly conditioned to think if it's not one it has to be the other. I call this a black and white mentality, it's got to be one or the other when in actually most of what is, is neither of just black or white, negative or positive.

Why firstly have a dire need to only focus on the positives? The more negatives we perceive within our environment, the more of a dire need we have to be positive. What if you didn't perceive everything that creates boundaries and limitations as being simply negative, nothing else!! What is occurring to the environment because we have few limitations in the way we impact on the environment? There is no moderation in our pollutants to start with and at the same time there is no moderation, no limitations, to destroying the natural environment through clearing.

How often is our unlimited potential mentioned to us these days which is mostly based on positive thinking, a potential that is not moderate in accordance with its environment? This includes any environment. My environment was to be limited to the traumas I experienced in life even though I went beyond these limitations. When I excessively went beyond these limitations I suffered big time, I in fact compounded my trauma especially when I took no painkillers.

Most of the times I didn't need painkillers, this is because I didn't allow my pain to control me. Just because I didn't allow the pain to control me, to force me to take pain killers, doesn't mean I took control of my pain.

This is the way we are conditioned to think, if you're not allowing pain/trauma to control you, you must have control of the pain/trauma, a black and white mentality. I think anyone who has experienced severe trauma would agree with me, at no time are you in control of the pain/trauma, you just simply try not to allow the pain/trauma to control you. You take pain killer so you think you have control, what enticed you to take painkillers in the first place? Pain, pain is more in control not less when taking painkillers.

This is the same with negative and positive thinking, do you allow the negative thinking to control you to primarily have a dire need to think positive!! In cases like this negative thinking is more in control, not less, we are simply being self-deceptive here.

However, because I didn't take painkillers I now suffer with compounding trauma that can be compounded by various experiences related in some way to my life trauma. Any kind of pain can cause me further trauma beyond of what the pain should, of course this only occurs when I allow any pain to control me. If I took painkiller in sever circumstances in my life, it is unlikely I would now be suffering with compounding trauma. It's to do with moderation, moderating when pain/trauma was going to control me.

A lot of people are today confusing positive thinking with moderation, a balanced mind set in accordance with the environment we are experiencing, any and all environments. Moderation and balance is simply the grey area between negative and positive thinking, there are simply no extremes within this state of mind and being. What you can accomplish within this state of mind is utterly astounding while at the same time existing within certain limitations.