There is a counterculture to positive thinking, a kind of hidden in plain sight non-movement slowly gaining momentum. At first I thought the negative thinking advocates were simply a backlash, a kind of sour grapes movement against the sucrose sweet teachings of positive thinking. But not at all, and you are going to love this. They have been around since the sandaled feet of the ancient Greeks beat a dusty path to the Parthenon. I am talking about the school of philosophy called Stoicism which blossomed shortly after the death of Aristotle. According to Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, the Stoic’s ideal state of mind was inner peace, not exuberant happiness. And this is an important point. They were actually applying negativity to counterbalance the overtly optimistic, to settle somewhere in between. The Stoics sought through reason what Newton’s third law of motion discovered through, well, motion. They were looking for equilibrium.
According to Burkeman, “Rather than struggling to avoid all thought of these worst-case scenarios, they counsel actively dwelling on them, staring them in the face.” The technique they employ is negative visualization. Here’s how it works. When we find something that we enjoy or even love we soon acclimate to its presence and it does not offer us that same level of happiness. It doesn’t matter if it’s our brand-new whiz-bang, super-duper smart phone or our loving and always supportive partner, in a short amount of time our interest lessens and then our level of enjoyment drops. The object of happiness then fades into the background. Negative visualization dictates that we contemplate the loss of that entity. Negative visualization would have you picture what life would be like without your smart phone or your partner. When your increased awareness falls on that object of happiness it rejuvenates your interest and increases your level of enjoyment. Reminding yourself that you could lose something automatically increases your appreciation of it.
Negative visualization offers another more substantial advantage over positive thinking, and that is the reduction of anxiety. Positive thinking will have you visualize that you already have what you are seeking. Now, you not only have to energetically maintain that illusion but you have to combat the fear of losing it. This phenomenon is especially evident in people who are “always happy”. They tend to overtly push hyper-happiness ahead of them with exaggerated beaming smiles like radar searching for sustenance. But their eyes forsake them. The muscles around their eyes are strained and pinched. Instead of the spontaneous spark of life, deep within their eyes you will find only bewilderment torched by fear. What is it they fear? They fear the loss of the illusion, something they never owned in the first place. Imagine how unsettling it is to fear losing something you never had in the first place.
Book: When Nothing Works Try Doing Nothing
Audio Downloads: Nothing Works Techniques
YouTube Video: The Genius of QE Is in Doing Nothing
walmart credit card login says:
Hi everyone, it’s my first visit at this web site, and article is genuinely fruitful in support of me,
keep up posting such articles.
web link says:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate
your efforts and I am waiting for your next post thanks once
again.
plenty of fish dating site of free Dating says:
I every time spent my half an hour to read this
webpage’s content daily along with a mug of coffee.
carpet cleaners San Antonio says:
Thanks for sharing your info. I truly appreciate your efforts
and I am waiting for your next post thank you once again.
carpet cleaners San Antonio says:
I couldn’t resist commenting. Perfectly written!
Joe says:
You need to take part in a contest for one of the most useful sites on the net.
I will highly recommend this blog!
emergency tree removal woodstock ga says:
Very good post. I definitely appreciate this website. Keep it up!
Best Church In Williamsburg says:
Saved as a favorite, I like your blog!
linked here says:
I every time emailed this weblog post page to all my
friends, because if like to read it then my contacts will too.
Stefanie says:
Hello Frank
I fully agree with you and the ancient Greeks. And the whole concept fits beautifully with Eufeeling which is free of “out there” because it IS and has always been the Divine within.
However, I’m grateful to be reading your post today because I’m dealing with a challenge where I almost forgot that it is the fear, for not getting what i (ego) think i need to then be happy, I must stare in the eye to be able to connect with peace and love again. It’s so easy and yet… sometimes we forget because the fear is so overwhelming that we are trapped in its claws. Thank you for posting this on this day where I needed the reminder most.
I wish you a joyful, peaceful and loving holiday season and hopefully I get to see you one of these days in Switzerland. I was one of your first students in Miami quite some years ago.
Best of all and much love
Stefanie