Exploring Positivism, Positive Thinking, and Mental Discipline in Handling Challenges

One of my neighbors' sons lost his job in the recent recession. I went to meet him as I had some references that could have helped him in finding a new job. As I entered his house, I found myself in a strange situation. The room was full of uncles and aunts who had surrounded him. There was a competition going on, "Who can console more? Who can say more positive words?" Everybody was trying hard, but most of the suggestions were revolving around the principle of "Think positive."

The zeal to fix all the ills of life just by positive thinking has brought the whole of humanity into a strange situation. Everybody is in a race to think positively but fails to do so. To think positively, first, the realization and acceptance of negativity are important.

To experience the value of happiness, it is important to experience misery. The experience of being a king by birth is nowhere close to the experience of a beggar who suddenly, by pure luck, becomes a king. This is incomparable. The concept of avoiding negative thoughts and focusing on positive ones itself declares that they exist in your mind. You can't live by focusing only on the positive ones and ignoring the negative thoughts. It's beyond your control. A war will start in your mind—your conscious mind will think whatever you order, but your subconscious mind is a self-proclaimed king. It is beyond control. It will generate doubts in you. The more you focus on positiveness with the help of your conscious mind, the more doubts you will create in your subconscious.

You could repress the negative thoughts. Deep down inside, you will become a totally negative person. This, in result, is going to create a void in you. You will feel emptiness in your life because somewhere you know that you are a fake positivist. Your positiveness is borrowed. You are forcing positiveness on yourself. This is not you; this is someone else.

Start taking the responsibility of your thoughts and start enjoying them.

Can the mind be free from the past, free from thought - not from the good or bad thought? How do I find out? I can only find out by seeing what the mind is occupied with. If my mind is occupied with the good or occupied with the bad, then it is only concerned with the past, it is occupied with the past. It is not free of the past. So, what is important is to find out how the mind is occupied. If it is occupied at all, it is always occupied with the past because all our consciousness is the past. The past is not only on the surface but on the highest level, and the stress on the unconscious is also the past.

Can the mind be free from occupation? This means, can the mind be completely without being occupied and let memory, the thoughts good and bad, go by without choosing? The moment the mind is occupied with one thought, good or bad, then it is concerned with the past. If you really listen - not just merely verbally, but really profoundly - then you will see that there is stability that is not of the mind, which is the freedom from the past. Yet, the past can never be put aside. There is a watching of the past as it goes by, but not occupation with the past. So the mind is free to observe and not to choose. Where there is choice in this movement of the river of memory, there is occupation; and the moment the mind is occupied, it is caught in the past; and when the mind is occupied with the past, it is incapable of seeing something real, true, new, original, uncontaminated. - J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

Greetings,

I agree with your point; being illogically positive doesn't help. However, a few doses of dopamine help the brain work better. Here's my story!

Positivism is different from escapism. I too survived my share of unemployment. Just as you have mentioned, no amount of consolation was enough. However, the grace to handle rejection and failure is what makes one wise.

Every interview I went to, I was rejected, yet I kept establishing professional contacts with them. They couldn't hire me, yet my attitude to remain professional made them remember me. I eventually found a job and in the process made many contacts that remain with me till date.

I used to put on a brave face, even after countless rejections. I knew I looked fake, and probably everyone laughed at me. Yet I still continued to smile, as I saw no point in cribbing and complaining. It would only weaken me further. It grew more difficult when I ran out of money. However, this pushed me to find out frugal ways that I never imagined before. I learned how quality and a respectful living doesn't need one to burn his or her bank balance.

The duration came to an end with the job I found. Thankfully, it made me a lot more grateful than before.

I recently completed a course on Positive Psychology and was happy to find that happiness is all and only about our choices. It's a mental discipline; hence, it can't be cultivated overnight. The capability of the mind to realize its limits and choose every emotion, especially under pressure situations, requires training, effort, and time.

I wait to hear more from our members on their real-life learning.

Greetings,

I found a link in Guidepost for Norman Vincent Peale's book being given away for free. Please consider visiting the following link if you are a fan like me: [Positive Thinking 2012: Rediscover the Power of Positive Thinking with Norman Vincent Peale](http://www.guideposts.org/free-ebooks/positive-thinking-2012-rediscover-power-positive-thinking-norman-vincent-peale)