Royane Real
Is Positive Thinking All It's Cracked Up to Be?
By Royane Real
These days, we are all familiar with the suggestion that a positive attitude is considered “good to have” , while a “negative attitude” is viewed as somehow, well, negative. But is this really true?
In this article on my website, " Positive Attitude - A Panacea For Many Ills", the author tries to explain some benefits of having a positive attitude. You will probably find the article quite beneficial to read.
However, you may be a bit puzzled by the title that the author has chosen for this article. “Positive Attitude – a Panacea for Many Ills”.
If you are puzzled by this title, chances are that you may be unfamiliar with the word “panacea”. If you don’t understand the word “panacea”, you won’t get the full meaning that the author intended.
It’s not a word that most of us use very often. If you want to start using it in your every day conversations, here is how you pronounce it:
“panna seeya”
The word “panacea” means a cure, or a remedy. It can even refer to some magical, miraculous cure for everything that ails anybody, anywhere. .
So when the author of the article Positive Attitude - A Panacea For Many Ills says that positive thinking is a panacea, what he means is that a positive attitude can fix many situations.
We hear about the benefits of positive thinking all the time. And even though we are constantly told we’re supposed to be positive, it isn’t always easy. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by external problems. Sometimes we are paralyzed by our internal negativity.
One thing I find ironic is that whether you are talking with a person who has a positive attitude or a person with a negative attitude, if you ask them whether they see things realistically, they will always say they do. They will tell you that the people with the opposite point of view are the ones who aren’t realistic. But they themselves are full of realism.
That’s because our own point of view always feels right to us. It’s just how our brains work.
That is one reason that it’s hard to convince someone who is habitually negative that they should try to become more positive in their thinking. Positive thinking to a negative person just doesn’t feel right. Still, people who are habitually negative can sometimes be persuaded to start changing when they realize some of the benefits that come from being more positive in their approach.
For example, having a positive assumption that a solution really exists for a problem is the first step in looking for a solution. A negative attitude will keep you from looking for a solution at all.
On the other hand, we don’t want to be so relentlessly positive in all situations that we live in denial.
We still need to stay grounded in a version of reality that works.
Positive thinking is no use to you if it keeps you from actually realistically assessing situations, looking for creative solutions, and then implementing them.
Where some people go wrong with positive thinking is that they are a bit simplistic about using it. They sometimes assume that all you have to do is have a positive mindset, and somehow all problems will miraculously solve themselves.
This type of magical thinking is not the real benefit of having a positive attitude.
The real benefit of a positive attitude is that it can keep you searching for solutions where a person with a negative attitude might not even bother.
A positive attitude can keep you working at solving problems where a negative attitude might lead you to just give up.
( The above comments are written by self improvement author Royane Real. Do you want to receive more insightful self improvement articles in your mailbox? Be sure to sign up for the free, no obligation newsletter to the left of this article. )
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
