Is the Slogan “Think Positive” hyped up?

Who has not heard the slogan Think Positive?

Slogans are everywhere, and they influence you.

Slogans like struggle, difficulties, pain, depression, procrastination, failure, mistakes, anxiety, stress, think positive, millionaire mindset, and…They also make you believe that you must be a Millionaire = another slogan, to be happy and prosperous.

What is a slogan?

A slogan is a memorable phrase or motto intended to repeat a purpose. It aims to persuade subliminally and try intentionally to influence our behavior.
Slogans and buzzwords get stuck in our heads. Some of them trigger feelings that are mostly not good ones. Often enough repeated, they can make life more difficult. Unconsciously, you expect it.

The process of life is now made into slogans coined to hold you back.
But it is just part of life that makes us experienced, stronger, and grow.
These slogans obscure and fragment the natural course of life; we focus on pieces instead of seeing them as a process.

Recently, the slogan Think Positive has been hyped up too much as a cure-all solution. But positive thinking can make things worse. This statement may be surprising at first. Like everything, it has a good and a bad side. It has to be understood.

Is Positive thinking a cure-all solution?

If we see the slogan think positive and think it is the only solution to problems, it causes us to suppress negative thoughts or feelings, harming ourselves and others.

Books and popular media emphasize the value of positive thinking. According to the promise, with the right guidance, anyone can become happy, reprogram their mindset, overcome fears forever, and become successful and wealthy.

There is evidence that a positive attitude can improve mental health. But positive thinking is not a remedy for life’s challenges. If you regularly force yourself to have a positive attitude despite feeling the opposite, this obsessive optimism can backfire.

Suppressed feelings

The pressure to stay positive can suppress your feelings, lead to guilt and shame, and prevent you from asking for help. You dismiss unpleasant feelings and react to difficult situations with yourself and others with reassurance instead of empathy. 

Positivity becomes toxic because of the belief that no matter how bad or difficult a situation is, you should maintain a positive attitude. But it does not work.

The attitude that only good feelings are allowed and that a positive attitude can solve all problems is a misconception because life doesn’t always go smoothly. In addition to beautiful experiences, we all also have negative feelings in life. Whoever allows and accepts them can process it better and use it constructively.

Pretended positivity

Simulated positivity suppresses and denies human emotions that are not always happy or positive. This attitude is unconsciously negative towards complicated feelings or painful experiences. In a difficult situation, it does not help to say, for example: “When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade.” or “What doesn’t kill you makes you tougher.”

If someone is sad, angry, depressed, or desperate, positive phrases don’t help. Genuine empathy and compassion are better.

How Pretented Positivity Can Harm

Trying to remain optimistic in times of crisis is a good thing. However, this does not mean that you should suppress negative feelings. Repression can cover up the symptom but not the actual problem. An accepting, optimistic attitude does not guarantee you will get through life without hurdles and setbacks. It becomes a problem, especially in difficult phases of life. 

Because whatever we resist persists and even becomes stronger.

Anyone who represses or denies part of their emotions risks becoming emotionally numb. It weakens your life energy. 

Also, authentic connection with others only arises when you can show yourself authentically in good and bad times.

Desperately keeping a positive attitude means covering up challenges instead of looking for solutions and asking for support. Growth, or fundamental change, comes about with difficulty. 

Negative feelings also tell you when a situation is not right for you. 

All emotions have a purpose and contain essential messages you must notice. Do not suppress feelings, including negative ones.It is ignoring your needs and essential values. Accept them and find a balanced way of dealing with them.

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.”— Pema Chödrön.

Balancing feelings:

Practice emotional acceptance and accept feelings without fighting or judging them. Notice your emotions and feel them to learn not to run away from them. Meditation and mindfulness practice can help.

Understand your emotions. Where does the lousy feeling come from, and what is behind your worry, anger, or frustration? Are your feelings valid? 

Do you push away negative feelings? What do certain emotions trigger in you? Fears or perhaps you had bad experiences?

Be honest with your feelings. Only if you show your emotions in difficult situations can you experience empathy, and other people are more likely to open up to you. There will be people who can endure the feelings with you.

Be careful with Social media. Sort out anything on social media channels that creates pressure on you. Especially posts that do not reflect real life but only fuel false expectations and the famous fear of missing out.

Admit your mistakes. If you notice that you have ignored the negative feelings of someone close to you even though they trusted you and wanted to talk with you about it, admit the mistake.

Be kind to yourself, especially when things aren’t going well, and don’t pretend to have high expectations of your emotional state. Do the same to a friend who asks for advice; your honest opinion will be more helpful than the answer: “All is great.”

View emotions as information rather than just focusing on how they make you feel. Allowing only positive or negative emotions is not healthy. Throughout the day, we go through different kinds of emotions. Don’t repress your emotions. Deal with them. 

Because “Feeling a state produces that state.”— Neville Goddard

And  Nothing is wrong with a positive attitude.

“I am absolutely against positive thinking. You will be surprised that if you don’t choose, if you remain in a choiceless awareness, your life will start expressing something which is beyond both positive and negative, which is higher than both. So you are not going to be a loser. It is not going to be negative, it is not going to be positive, it is going to be existential.” – Osho

Are you aware of slogans and how they make you feel?

Do you accept your feelings or often push negative feelings away?

Please tell us your opinion about the slogans and how they make you feel.

Let’s create a better world!

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May it help you to have a more positive
outlook  🙂