Does Positive Thinking Really Work?

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Everyone says that life can be altered in a much better way if positive thinking is brought about in one’s life. Positive thinking is touted as the way to attain happiness in one’s life. The ‘positive thinking’ fad first became popular and reached its peak in the 1990’s. This way of life focuses on the idea that one needs to snuff out negative thoughts from one’s mind in order to achieve happiness. This might be true. Yet, some times there arises a doubtful situation and we tend to ponder, does positive thinking work. Here’s why we think so.

Positive thinkers try to stay positive in spite of committing wrongs. Ideally, they should take care not to commit a wrong act. The question of putting out negative thoughts after committing a wrong act should not arise in the first place. In fact after committing something wrong, one needs to feel bad enough so as to not commit the act again. Feeling happy and ‘putting away’ negative thoughts won’t help in any way.

Positive thinkers do not judge any situation fairly as they always see the positive side of things rather than judging the situation as a whole, on its own merit. This might actually cause more problems than helping situations. One needs to also judge one’s weaknesses so as to improve rather than always being positive. Positive thinkers’ theory that the ‘Universe will provide’ may or may not be true. The universe can never provide if one cannot judge situations properly and keeps on making the same mistakes.

People who always think positive tend to have a laid-back attitude, and thus turn inactive. They do not perform to the optimum as they are ‘happy’ with whatever they have in life and do not feel the need to work harder. Thus, positive thinking may actually reduce productivity. Positive thinking may also turn someone blind to his/her future prospects as they may tend to feel all is right, when actually it is not.

No doubt, positive thinking might be a great idea, provided one has a realistic approach towards life. Being only positive won’t help always. Sometimes one needs to judge a situation and decide realistically so as to not go in the wrong direction and thus harm oneself.