Positive thinking is a philosophy of life or a self help method which has it's origin in the early twentieth century but it became extremely popular in the nineteen eighties and it is still very popular. The idea is that we should get rid of negative, dark thoughts and replace them with positive and optimistic ones. We should change our minds.
The big pharmaceutical companies had some new promising antidepressant pills to put out on the market in the beginning of the eighties. Unhappiness, frustration and anxiety were, as they saw it, medical disorders that could be cured with medication. A lot of people suffered from unhappiness, sorrow, anger and frustration. The market was immense.
Psychotherapy wasn’t very successful in those days. People could spend years in therapy without feeling better. So many psychotherapists needed a new approach and became positive thinking gurus.
Positive thinking was, and still is, a very good business for the pharmaceutical companies, the therapists, the authors of self help books and the publishing houses.
The establishment was in hot water after the Vietnam war. They had to do something. And they did. On a grand scale. They embraced the positive thinking philosophy and filled the newspapers, magazines and TV shows with the optimistic message: if you are a looser it's your own fault. Stop complaining about injustices, war and environmental pollution. Do something. Become something great. Women don’t want to marry losers. They want dollars, big cars and swimming pools. And big Hollywood smiles.
Positive thinking is a very dangerous philosophy. You have to learn self-hypnosis and how to reprogram your unconscious mind. The crucial point is what kind of stuff you program your subconscious mind with. Is it the establishments ideas of success? Sales results? The meaning with life is to get rich, no matter how. Success is measured in dollars.
Since the nineteen sixties the clinical depressions have increased with over a thousand percent. (See Martin Seligman’s book Authentic happiness) The sub clinical depressions have of course also increased but I don’t have any figures. We feel like shit. We are getting more and more depressed. We sink deeper and deeper in the mire. Nothing seems to be of any help. Sometimes depression is called “the common cold of the mind”, everybody suffer from it from time to time, but what if common colds had increased with a thousand percent in 50 years, wouldn’t you have wondered what was going on?
So, are we doomed? Is a change to something positive impossible? If change is possible how does it come about? Is it a gradual and slow process or is it instant? Is it something we can do to make it happen? Is it something we have to realize? Do we need to practice more meditation? Do we need to pray?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWfDm_bqwUU&feature=related
1 comment:
My suggestion is to read "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle...and/or listen to one of his talks. One of the best is "Even the Sun will Die"...changing the way we think is not "the solution"... becoming aware that our 'normal' thinking is insane... changes everything. Neither positive Or negative changes the Now. The Now is the only time that exists. In realizing this, I change. There is no "outside." Consciousness is now becoming aware of "itself" through Us. This is the transformation of consciousness... and our thinking doesn't bring "it about." The paradox in this, is that "the mind"...the conceptual thinking mind...cannot use its mental constructs to "imagine" what I am saying. It comes from a deeper place within Us, our true nature, our essential Self...the essence of who we are... Has nothing to do with the content of our minds. So labels, definitions, theories, concepts, ideas, thoughts... all of it... are not the "tools" for change. Only... waking up to the fact that who You are... who We Are is not 'our minds'...
For thousands of years, we have identified ourselves with the content of our minds. This is not the truth of who we are. The paradox is... to understand, what I just said, requires awakening.. and I can't tell anyone how to do that. For many people now, they are ready, they have open enough by some event or life situation... that allows the awakening process to begin withIn them.
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