Is positive thinking a chore?

Is positive thinking a chore?

I recently noticed a friend had shared an article about how ‘positive thinking’ was actually turning happiness into a chore.

I was a little put out to see him sharing something like that, especially when positive thinking is something I regularly encourage him to do. After reading the article I understood what it was trying to say, that pretending to be happy all of the time isn’t good because ultimately that is fake. I completely agree, our emotions are something to be felt and it’s no use pretending that you aren’t feeling sadness or anger or whatever it may be. However, these kinds of taglines of ‘Positive thinking is the enemy!’ is such a cop out for those who wish to spend time in their more negative thoughts.

Through Conquering Life, I learnt that positive thinking isn’t a chore, even though it might feel like it at the beginning because we’re so conditioned to believe that we should never be content, it’s an automatic way of thinking that you can train yourself to do. It isn’t about pretending that the world is constructed out of candy and that you eat rainbows for breakfast, it’s about altering your perspective to see the positive rather than fixating upon the negative.

We find what we look for, the more positively we look at the things the more positive we’ll see and vice versa.

It really is a tragic thing to see, people, so many people, convinced that anxiety, insecurity, negativity, etc.… are just part of the human condition. Just things that we should live with. While processing and feeling our emotions is important, I’m here to say, that life isn’t about constantly coping! Negativity is so often a defense mechanism that we hide behind so that we never put ourselves out there and thereby protect ourselves. It’s easy to sit from behind that negativity shield and laugh at the ‘idiotic’ simplicity of positive thinking, believing that there’s no way that changing your life could be that easy. And maybe it isn’t always easy, it’s a journey, but the way is simple enough. We get to choose. It may seem easier to dismiss, and to stick to the cynical view that humans are meant to suffer, but in the long run, it just makes for a long and hard path.

Positive thinking is really just a re-adjustment to our lenses. Our reality is filtered through all of these society instilled and self-created beliefs about ourselves, so if our lenses are negative then that’s all we’ll ever get to see. You don’t have to see positive thinking or happiness as a chore, it is just something you start doing instead of always doing the reverse. Instead of thinking, I’m such an idiot I can’t even get this right, you thinking, I worked really hard and did my best and that’s all that I can ask of myself. Positive thinking is just a gently re-adjusting your own view of yourself.

Before Conquering Life I never realized how much negativity ran amuck in my mind, negativity mainly geared against myself. Conquering Life taught me how to better my perspective, so that I know I can look at myself and my world more positively. Positive thinking isn’t a luxury, it’s something we all deserve and we can all have. So if you want to stop living with dark shades on, take them off and look for a replacement pair! It’s time to feel the sunshine and Conquer Life!