The Dark Side of Positive Thinking

The Dark Side of Positive Thinking

By Rudá Iandé

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Thousands of books, workshops and self-help gurus repeat the same mantra: “change your thoughts, change your life.” If only the mythical “law of attraction” worked for even half the people who tried it! We’d need a bigger Hollywood for all the positive thinking stars, thousands of new private islands for the positive thinking millionaires, and entire industries propped up by the success of positive thinking CEOs. There wouldn’t be enough resources on the planet to fulfill the dreams of a new generation of magicians in possession of “The Secret.”

Positive thinking is like the New Age version of believing in Santa Claus. All you have to do is make a list of what you want, imagine that it’s on its way, and then sit and wait for the universe to deliver it to your doorstep. Positive thinking claims to give you the keys to manifest your desired future by imagining that it’s already arrived. By doing that, you attract whatever you want from the universal matrix. Stay 100% positive for long enough, and your new reality will simply materialize from your thoughts.

There are just two problems here:

1) it’s exhausting, and

2) it’s ineffective.

Positive thinking teaches you to ignore your true feelings

What positive thinking actually does is teach you how to hypnotize yourself into ignoring your true feelings. It creates a kind of tunnel vision. You begin to lock your consciousness into a bubble in which you exist only as your “higher self,” always smiling, full of love and happiness, magnetic and unstoppable. Living inside this bubble might feel good in the short-term, but in time the bubble will burst. That’s because every time you force yourself to be positive, negativity grows within. You can deny or repress the negative thoughts and emotions, but they don’t go away.

Life is full of challenges, and facing these challenges every day triggers all kinds of thoughts and emotions, including anger, sadness and fear. Trying to avoid what you consider negative and sticking only with the positive is a huge mistake. When you deny your true feelings, you’re telling a part of yourself, “You’re bad. You’re shadow. You’re not supposed to be here.” You build a wall in the mind and your psyche becomes split. When you draw the line between what’s acceptable within yourself and what’s not, 50 percent of who you are is being rejected. You’re constantly running away from your shadow. It’s an exhausting journey that leads to sickness, depression and anxiety….

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