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POSITIVE THINKING

Written by: Jonathan Payne

Article Overview: Reframe your thoughts to state things in the positive, as our brains capture any thought whether positive or negative.

POSITIVE THINKING

Follow this instruction carefully. Don’t think about a red car! I can guarantee that the first thing that came to your mind after reading that was – a red car. The reason for this is that we cannot think in the negative. In order to get to the negative we first have to go through the positive. In order not to think about a red car we first have to think about it and then not think about it.
This would suggest that everything we say to ourselves is received by our brain- even the things we do not want to receive. Our brains are exceptionally absorbent sponges taking in vast amounts of information- and we are unaware of most of it. It is thought that every experience we have ever had is stored somewhere in our mind. In our thinking processes some of that material is accessed, even material we did not know was there, and it influences the way we think and how we respond to situations.
If we do not want to do something – such as not thinking about the red car – we tend to give ourselves the instruction in the negative; “Don’t do this”, or “I will not.” Although our intention is then to do the opposite of the negative statement, what has in fact happened is that we have planted in our mind the very concept that we want to avoid. I do not want to think about the red car, but my mind thinks about it in order to follow the instruction.
It makes sense then to state a desired action in the positive. So rather than say “Do not think about a red car”, it would be better to say, “Think about a yellow car.” Then the mind will think only about the desired object.
So, if you want to succeed say, “I will succeed,” not, “I must not fail”. By telling yourself not to fail, you have introduced to your mind the concept of failure. In fact, the mind will dwell on the possibility of failure, and thus make failure more likely, before it comes to success.
A child might walk happily and bravely along a wall. The parent says, “Don’t fall”. The child’s mind now thinks about falling, and the likelihood of the child falling increases – exactly what the parent wanted to avoid.
Try catching your negative statements today. Think about how you can reframe your “I must not” statements into “I will” statements.

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Article Tags: brain, brains, failure, intention, likelihood, red car, sponges, yellow car



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