Is positive thinking always an effective strategy?

I read a couple of articles over at Lyman Reed's blog, Creating a Better Life that got me thinking.  Check out his posts- I Am - I Feel- There Is (Rotten Apples) and In Praise of Positive Thinking.  He talked about the the importance of dealing with emotions and not trying to mask depression or other emotions with affirmations or any other personal development technique.  Let me first say that I agree with Lyman 100%.  Emotions are important and need to be addressed.  I believe that it is important to learn how to really feel your emotions and allow them to flow their natural course.  Emotions start, rise to a peak, and then dissipate.  Unfortunately, many people are afraid of their own emotions and stifle this natural flow.  A very important part of emotional health is to let the energy of the emotions flow naturally.  If we stuff or ignore our emotions, they get backed up like a pressure cooker and might "explode" at inappropriate times.

While I am a big proponent of letting our feelings flow, I am also a hardcore believer in affirmations and positive thinking.  Our thoughts drive our emotions.  When we feel depressed, sad, anxious, stressed, angry, happy, excited, or any other emotion, it is a partially a result of the thoughts we have been thinking (I also understand that neurotransmitters play a role as well).  Therefore, in my opinion, if we frequently feel depressed, sad, anxious, etc., then we must work to change our thinking.  When we don't like the way we feel, it is in large part due to the negative unhealthy thoughts going on.  Unfortunately, over time these negative thoughts really take hold.  The more often we think these thoughts, the stronger the neural net (a group of neurons that that get "wired" together due to repeated use) becomes.  In other words, you have negative thoughts and then you feel bad.  As this happens over and over, you develop strong neural nets that makes it easy to continue with this negative pattern.  It then becomes more difficult to change to positive thoughts, but that doesn't mean we should give up.

Here's an analogy that might help make this more clear.  Let's say you are walking on a path in the woods.  You know that this path leads to a dark, scary dead-end, but the path is familiar and easy to walk.  You know if you want to go somewhere else you will have to begin clearing a new path.  Would you just continue walking the dead-end path over and over, wearing an even deeper groove?  Or would you start clearing the new pathway?  Sure, it is difficult work.  Certainly you need to focus on one step at a time.  However, it doesn't make good sense to decide that making a new path is too hard and you are going back to the familiar and easy path - knowing you do not like the destination.

So, when you do not like the way you are feeling, you must begin creating a new feeling by thinking new thoughts.  The new positive thoughts might feel awkward, uncomfortable, and/or difficult at first.  You might think that it is too difficult, but if you want to feel better you NEED to change your thoughts.  A very effective way to do this is by using affirmations.  As you repeat the affirmation over and over, it is like swinging your machete to start clearing the new path.  You can't expect to swing the machete once and automatically have a new pathway appear in the woods.  You will have to repeat the affirmations frequently and persistently.  You did not create the current bad feeling mindset overnight and you will not create a new better feeling mindset overnight.

Another way to think about it is that developing a new positive mindset is like recruiting and strengthening a muscle - it takes some work and repetitions of strengthening exercises.  You keep at it until you build this muscle up.  Likewise, you keep using your affirmations until you have successfully changed your self-talk.  Over time, you will retrain yourself to have a positive optimistic mindset and your emotions, mood, and attitude will follow suit.

If you want help creating affirmations check out this post or go to Think Positive! Blog to read our daily affirmations.

What do you think?  Are affirmations always helpful?  Or, can they do harm?

Comments

[Lyman Reed]

Thanks for your thoughts on the articles, Kirsten.

I do completely agree with you that affirmations are a very powerful way to change our thinking - and following that our emotions and actions. As I see it, the problem comes up when the person using the affirmation can't remove the echo of "Bull!"

For me, the official Positive Thinking Day affirmation is fabulous - "I Choose To Create A Great Day." It tells me that I have the power of choice when it comes to my life.

"I Am" style affirmations don't work as well for me, though. Of course, most of them could be re-written on an individual basis - "I am wealthy" becomes "I choose wealth." - "I am happy" becomes "I choose happiness."

Thanks for helping me to choose to create another great day today. :)

[Kirsten Harrell, Psy.D.]

Hi Lyman,
Thanks for sharing. I know I have sort of a radical view on affirmations. I think the "bull" response is normal and can be quieted over time by being persistent with the affirmation. It can take a lot of work and effort to change the self-talk.

That being said, I do understand that affirmations are not always right for everyone. I LOVE your idea of changing the affirmations to "I choose" when you are uncomfortable with "I am." Brilliant!

[Ideaspace]

Hi
I just read many of the posts here.It was a revealing experience to know the why part of many of these ideas.I had posted many similar post in my blog from the perspective of a lay man.Now I find the scientific reasons and explanations for those ideas here.I would be greatful if you could visit my blog Ideaspace-venu.blogspot.com where I keep posting my ideas about individual development.

CLICK HERETO GO TO MY BLOG

[Kirsten Harrell, Psy.D.]

Hi Ideaspace,
I am glad you stopped by. I will check out your blog. Remember, you can participate in Positive Thinking Day by putting the logo link on your blog.