Everywhere I look these days ‘the power of positive thinking’ is getting attacked. A recent book recounted the experience of how awful it was for someone undergoing cancer treatment always being told to look on the bright side. Acclaimed anti-war author Christopher Hedges has said that new-age magical thinking differs little in its reality-denying effects from religious fundamentalism. Whether its called positive thinking, or whether its the think-it-and-you-will-have-it sort of magical thinking one associates with The Secret (disclaimer: I know little about ‘The Secret’ and don’t have a strong opinion about it), this sort of thinking has been termed annoying at best, and delusional or destructive, at worst.
You know what: I agree, for the most part. There are times when positive thinking is totally inappropriate. Positive thinking is a very bad idea when one is trying to feel better about something so that one doesn’t have to deal with it. A great article I read recently made the point that most people who seek enlightenment are really just looking to feel better. To pretend to be positive in the face of death and tragedy is grotesque.
Now, of course, there are a great many times when having a positive outlook is both entirely appropriate and very empowering. But it has to be authentic. I think sometimes people miss the difference between positivity and authenticity. The former has no real place in transformational education, at least in the way I’ve been exposed to it, mostly through the programmes of Landmark Education, while the latter is at their heart. Only by being honest about the way things actually are can one invent something new.
Now, I do believe that we have a say about how we view life, and that our say has a lot to do with our power and our actions in life, and that this say does have a lot to do with transformational education. This is very different from positive or magical thinking, however. Both of those are rooted in a denial or de-emphasis of the negative. They come from a viewpoint that positive is better than negative or that thoughts equal reality. A more practical approach is to ask, what kind of outlook would give me power in this situation? Sometimes a negative outlook might give one effectiveness. Sometimes a positive outlook – either way, it’s not the point. And such an outlook has to be authentic, which is to say, created from a place of openness, not denial. You can create a new outlook and not have it be phony. But you would have to be honest about what’s there for you first.
And I don’t believe that merely thinking something makes it happen. That’s hopeful nonsense, it seems to me. However, if one genuinely takes a new attitude about something, then our actions change, and then reality changes – this is common sense and not anything like positive or magical thinking, as I see them.
I hope this is all making sense. It bothers me, I suppose, when someone mistakes breakthrough thinking, transformational education, for new-age claptrap or other nonsense. If I haven’t made the point well enough, here’s another person who makes the same about life coaching (that it’s not positive thinking).
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