Positive thinking is psychological pop. Report: Positive thinking as a component of mental health

Useless trainings and other relatively honest ways of taking money from the population.

This “concept” suggests that you need to smile at the world and people, and not only by pulling a fake “smiley” on your face, but also internally: think about the good, visualize positive images, meditate on the feeling “that everything is fine”, overcome negative feelings and thoughts by force of will, etc. etc. Accordingly, preachers of positive thinking actually offer adepts to always be in a good mood, to be cheerful, smiling, easy to communicate, etc. It is assumed that such practices (almost spiritual) should help a person not to become discouraged and be able to act correctly.

In fact, there is no experimentally confirmed connection between positive thinking "practices" and performance. In most cases, positivity allows a person not to achieve real results, but only to assert himself in his illusions, to legitimize his laziness and unwillingness to really work. A person who seriously believes in the power of positive thinking begins to think that everything is fine with him, which means why act? Why change something?

To better understand whether positive thinking helps or hinders, let's ask ourselves the following question. Who spends more energy: the one who just works or the one who still tries to smile and be positive? But the one who spends more energy, of course, is in a less advantageous position.

In general, positive thinking is a concept from the circle “to pretend is to become!” ("fake it till you make it"; "act as if"). And preachers of positive thinking say that the one who looks successful and feels like a successful person will achieve success. But, in reality, such statements and emotional appeals are just psycho-babble (psychobabble), i.e. nonsense, which, being well packaged, allows you to receive money for it from the population.

Of course, the only thinking that can help in real life is correct thinking, qualitative thinking, critical thinking. Only a person who sensibly assesses reality can act effectively in it. Thinking developed in the process of evolution as a mechanism for adapting to the environment, and not as a way to escape into the world of illusions.

Preachers of positive thinking do not agree with such criticism and often use sophism, according to which, in particular, if a person is immersed in depression, then he cannot act effectively, which means that you must first become positive, get out of depression, and only then begin to act (on place the word "depression" can be put "bad mood"). In fact, everything is exactly the opposite. You can get out of depression by performing actions, even the simplest ones, for example, shifting matches from a full box to an empty box (see the chapter on depression).

In other words, start taking action no matter how bad your mood is, keep working hard and your mood will improve.

In general, work, labor is often accompanied by experiences and sensations that are by no means positive. Therefore, it is much more useful for a person to learn to continue working when there is no desire to work, when you experience discomfort, when you do not see the point in working. And the true advantages are acquired by those who work, other things being equal, more than others - this is simple arithmetic.

Overcoming pain, being able to refuse pleasure is much more useful than accustoming yourself to always be positive. The famous Stanford marshmallow experiment also suggests this conclusion.

This experiment got its name insofar as the same marshmallow was used for the study, which American kids love to fry on a fire (as well as cookies and sweets).

How did the experiment go?

The children were asked to choose: to receive one marshmallow immediately or to receive two marshmallows, but after waiting in the room for 15 minutes. After that, the children who took part in the experiment were monitored. As the years passed, it turned out that those of the children who preferred two marshmallows after waiting, achieved more in life than those who did not want to sit without pleasure. The adept of positive thinking is, of course, like a child who wants to get pleasure immediately, now and, moreover, to receive it continuously.

Another sophistical argument of the preachers of positive thinking is this: other things being equal, people are more pleasant to communicate with positive people, so such people gain an advantage. Nothing like this. For example, it is much more pleasant for tyrant bosses to communicate with people who are victimized, easily accepting a subordinate position, and constantly worrying about their place. It is these people that the bosses will promote, leaving to themselves (more precisely, under themselves). In addition, positivity can cause envy, and a positive person can begin to put spokes in the wheels.

And the sympathy of others is not a key factor in life success (unless, of course, you are an actor or a secretary). The key factor here, sorry for the melancholy, work, and only work.

Preachers of positive thinking do not understand the main thing: it is simply impossible to be positive all the time. For example, any actor will confirm that it is simply impossible to maintain an unjustified emotion for a long time. But preachers and adherents of positive thinking, like many other supporters of pseudoscientific ideas, are in captivity of blind faith in the power of thought. They believe that any negative experiences and thoughts can be overcome by thinking about the good.

In fact, the belief that by thinking positively you can stop thinking negative thoughts contradicts the experimental data. The prominent American psychologist Daniel Wegner (the author of the famous problem called “don’t think about the polar bear”) showed that people cannot force themselves not to think about the bad by the effort of thought, just as they cannot force themselves not to think about the polar bear (see, for example, ). This experimentally recorded phenomenon, by the way, is even designated by the special term "paradoxical mental process" (ironic mental process). Therefore, to believe that with the help of the power of concentration, the effort of thought and positive visualizations, one can discard all negativity from oneself, means to be in a deep and malignant delusion.

So, adherents of positive thinking harm themselves when they try to influence themselves with the help of the power of thought, meditative efforts and visualizations, they spend their energy on achieving what is simply impossible to achieve, i. make extra efforts, act in a non-optimal mode. They believe in the method, they see that it does not work, this fact conflicts with faith, and cognitive dissonance arises, and as a result, adherents of positive thinking receive additional tension, additional stress. Therefore, instead of facilitating, adherents of positive thinking acquire complication, they complicate their lives and activities.

But imagine for a moment that you nevertheless learned how to somehow miraculously experience pleasure without any external reasons: regardless of whether you achieved what you wanted or did not achieve, fired you or promoted you, accepted your advances or refused. Then why do anything at all? Why eat and drink? You can simply plunge into the waves of pleasure, dissolve in them and die. Do you think it's just logical reasoning? No - this is experimental data.

Back in 1953, James Odes and Peter Milner conducted a series of experiments in the laboratory of Donald Hebb (McGill University) in which an electrode was implanted directly into the brain of rats - in the so-called "pleasure center". In one of these experiments, the rat itself could pass the current through the electrode by pressing the lever, i.e. stimulate your own pleasure center. And what is the result? You guessed it: the rats pressed the lever 7,000 times an hour, refusing food and water in the process, and brought themselves to complete exhaustion.

In general, positive thinking, precisely because it is impossible to be positive all the time, is a win-win option for trainers and writers who have nothing to offer the client and reader: since thinking positively always it is simply impossible, insofar as all cases when positive thinking did not work, the client, the reader can easily write off the fact that it did not work out to think positively. Plus, there is always the opportunity to “sell” a person one more training, one more book - after all, no one will ever be able to master positive thinking in such a way as to be sure that he has mastered it completely.

So, positive thinking is a typical empty concept, a simulacrum and a decoy idea used by lovers of "cutting the dough the easy way" - pseudo-psychological businessmen. So do not try to think positively, but try to think correctly, try not to make stupid mistakes, try to operate with verified and reliable information, well, if you want to break out of the average, work selflessly, work hard, work so that you come after work and fall down .

There are, however, two more options: to become a corrupt official or a bandit. But even in these cases, you need to work constantly, because the competition is tough ...

LITERATURE


  1. Olds J., Milner P. Positive reinforcement produced by electrical stimulation of septal area and other regions of rat brain // Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. - 1954. - No. 47 (6). — P.p. 419-427.

  2. Shoda Y., Mischel W., Peake P.K. Predicting Adolescent Cognitive and Self-Regulatory Competencies from Preschool Delay of Gratification: Identifying Diagnostic Conditions // Developmental Psychology. - 1990. - No. 26 (6). — Rr. 978-986.

  3. Wegner, D. M. You can "t always think what you want: Problems in the suppression of unwanted thoughts // Advances in experimental social psychology. - 1992. - Vol. 25. - Rp.193-225.

  4. Psychophysiology: Textbook for universities / Ed. Yu.I. Alexandrova. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007. - 464 p.

Often, the concept of positive thinking is misunderstood by us. In fact, this does not mean that you should be happy every day and, at the same time, smile all the time. Rather, it is a choice, a way of life, a philosophy that helps to look for the positive in any life situation. Of course, it is easy to enjoy every day when life flows smoothly and simply.

However, it's only when it starts throwing up problems, hardships, and even tragedy that your positive thinking is put to the test, A2news.ru says.

Positive thinking entails a positive life. This, in turn, implies the ability to improve. We call it a skill because this ability can be acquired in the same way as learning a language or playing musical instruments. For those who are optimistic by nature, it is certainly easier to do this, but everyone can become more positive, you just have to want to.

What is the opposite of positive? That's right, negative. In our society, this phenomenon is found in abundance, especially in the current atmosphere of fear, uncertainty about the future and uncertainty. Recently, one can often observe how young couples set themselves, first of all, the goal - to acquire a good apartment, house, other material benefits, to make a certain amount of money. How to Spot the Signs of Kidney Disease There is a theory that it is precisely because of the instability in the world around us that young people have become more insistent in their desire to have everything at once, without long waiting times. The older members of our society tend to take the opposite view, being more conservative on this issue. They are ready for limitations and are not afraid of difficulties.

Neither of the two positions is correct. It is unwise to be too careful in your actions, but it is also impossible to forget about everything in the world on the way to the goal. Neither the first nor the second opinion is true when it comes to positive thinking.

The media play a big role in shaping the social attitudes of each of us. But, unfortunately, much of what we hear and see on television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet brings us negative emotions. Of course, it is very difficult to maintain a positive attitude in the light of such a powerful onslaught of negativity. Many people choose to exclude all media exposure from their lives for this reason, but positive thinking does not mean avoiding problems. It's about walking boldly through life and always having your own point of view, especially when you have to face the negative side of life.

So what is true positive thinking?

The truth about positive thinking.

In fact, positive thinking is more than just optimism. People who have it are able to easily challenge all problems and difficulties. The well-known expression that the glass can be half empty or half full perfectly characterizes the supporters of positive thinking. Two people can look at the same glass and see two completely different situations, depending on their point of view. We have a wonderful story that shows how this happens.

The father took his two young sons to the doctor because one boy was a complete pessimist and the other an absolute optimist, which worried the father very much. The doctor asked the man to leave his children with him for the whole day. The man agreed, and the doctor led the boys down the corridor. He opened one door leading to a room filled with every imaginable toy, stuffed animal, sweets and more. The doctor suggested that the pessimist stay there for a while, saying that the room could be fun. He then led the optimist into the second room, which was nothing but a huge pile of dung right in the middle. The doctor left the boy there. At the end of the day, the doctor entered the room where the first boy was supposed to play. The room looked terrible, toys were broken, scattered all over the floor, everything was a mess. The pessimistic boy was crying and telling the doctor that he had no more toys left! Then, the doctor moved into the next room, where he found the optimistic boy sitting in a heap of dung. When asked why he climbed there, the boy replied that, in his opinion, if there is such a large pile of manure, then there must be a horse somewhere nearby!

This story very clearly characterizes both pessimism and optimism. The pessimistic boy was unhappy despite all the blessings he was given, while the optimist looked for the good in the most terrible things.

Let's take another example. Two men, one of whom was an optimist and the other a pessimist, were on an air flight. The pessimist told a friend about all the potential dangers of such a trip - crime, airport security, the risk of terrorism, and so on. Since the optimist did not react in any way to this information, the pessimist finally remembered that the plane could explode! Without thinking twice, the optimist replied that it's okay! If this happens, they will already be much closer to heaven. Thus, the typical approach of a person who strives for positive thinking and life is to see the good side in even the most terrible events.

The concept of negativity.

Before we can consider changing negative thinking to positive, we must understand the nature of the former. The reason most people choose to have a negative mindset is because it is much more convenient and safer. Negativity is associated with fear and the need to control the world around us. Positivity is characterized by trust and the conviction that life is good. But trust is a risk. Many are afraid that life will bring them unwanted surprises.

Negative ego.

In nature, all opposites are balanced. Sometimes we observe the principle mentioned above first, sometimes last. However, in general, we move in waves between the two, embracing both sides of our nature. Most of us have been brought up to only show our positive side, and as a result, we do not reveal ourselves fully. The basis of the human psyche is both positive and negative. The latter is presented as the negative ego. It is, literally, our dark side, whose job it is to make us worry, doubt, anger, resentment, self-pity and hatred of others - the whole spectrum of so-called negative emotions. We say so-called because all emotions are actually healthy and should be expressed without judgment or limitation. What really matters is how we respond to them. In addition, there are certain means by which you can add optimism to yourself.

When the negative ego speaks in us, we still need to listen to it, as we have sufficient wisdom and strength in order not to commit bad deeds. In doing so, we simply become more resilient and stronger. This voice is suppressed by most of us, leading to many potential problems. In very severe cases, the dark side of our consciousness finally develops into a propensity for violence, crime, drug addiction and destructive behavior.

On the other hand, the reward of accepting yourself fully, both positive and negative, is an achievement that helps to free your consciousness. Give yourself the opportunity to be yourself. At the same time, one cannot do without struggle, self-doubt. This does not mean that you need to listen only to the positive side of consciousness, excluding the manifestation of the negative. However, if you let your negative ego control you, it can lead to problems like addiction, depression, and self-loathing.

How will all of this help you become more positive? The fact is that being at peace with yourself is the principle of positive thinking. As we wrote at the beginning, optimism in our lives does not allow problems to completely take over our mind.

Negative thinking is a completely different concept, the appearance of which in our lives is not at all desirable. When he does manage to get the better of your positive side of consciousness, make an effort to stop and immediately change your thoughts to positive ones. If you cannot do this, try to neutralize the influence of negative thinking. For example, when you think you could do something, the optimist thinks he can do it, and the pessimist thinks he won't. Thus, if by nature you are characterized by negative thinking, start your thought with the phrase - I am not going to think that ... Gradually you will be able to get rid of the influence of negative thinking.

proactive life.

Being positive is great, but you can take it to the next level. From positive thinking to prosperity thinking, which involves planning your life one step ahead, creating your own destiny, always expecting the best, not fearing the worst. This is required not only by the philosophy of optimism, but by the maximum confidence in oneself and life. This means living actively, not passively. Plan your goals and dream about them, wait for the result and believe that everything will work out.

Like any theory, positive thinking requires a lot of strength and determination. Moreover, you will always be surrounded by people who are ready to tell you about what a dreamer you are and that life is very cruel now, and you simply wear rose-colored glasses. Say that you create your own reality and life scenario, in accordance with your thoughts. It is much easier to complain and be a pessimist than to insist that everything will be fine, no matter the circumstances. You should never give in to the feeling of fear - never and never. The economy, climate change, terrorism - all the problems associated with these factors have their solutions, and you must be sure that you will find them.

Approval and engagement.

These two concepts accompany an active life and the creation of a positive existence. Affirmations literally mean our positive statements about life. Even though they are spoken aloud and mechanically perceived by us, affirmations have the power to help change thinking over time. Try to pick a specific area you want to work in and, if possible, write your own affirmations. Keep it as simple as possible, formulating them in the present tense and say affirmations constantly, like a mantra. In light of the current financial crisis, you can, for example, say that you are financially secure. Reality will indeed change following your statement if you believe in what you are saying and have made a firm decision to use this method.

Attractiveness is an expression of the energy you expend in changing your thoughts and expressing what you want to see in material form around you. Feeling grateful for what you already have is part of this energy. Anxiety is the exact opposite of positive energy and actually delays the achievement of a result. It's great when you set goals and want to achieve great things in the future, but it's also vital to stay in the present. Setting your goals too far in the future is a sure recipe for developing negative thinking and reinforcing feelings of fear. Enjoy life in the present moment, but not recklessly. Enjoy the small, simple gifts that make up your daily life, such as sunshine, the food we have, love, our family and friends, our home, and so on.

Unfortunately, both positive and negative are very unstable and grow in direct proportion to the energy that causes them. Therefore, it is very important to make a conscious choice and stay positive every day, under any circumstances. If this does not come naturally to you, then at the initial stage, difficulties may arise. However, remember that the key to learning is practice.

Sometimes, insecurity triggers a person's defense mechanisms. It happens that the influence of external factors over which you have no direct control, comes into conflict with the need to succeed in achieving the goal. Remember that only you are responsible for your own destiny, until the moment you yourself want it.

Here are ten tips to help you develop the skills of truly positive thinking:

  • Refuse negativity - consciously choose the predominance of positive thoughts over negative ones in all life situations.
  • · Avoid feelings of anxiety, no matter how difficult the situation you find yourself - relax, laugh and enjoy the fact that you just live.
  • · Stay in the present, which is always easy to manage.
  • · Face your fears about the challenges you are currently facing. Keep courage and believe that your problems can always be solved.
  • · Choose positivity as a way of life and practice it every day.
  • · Use affirmations to attract all the good things you would like to bring into your life.
  • · Be grateful for what you already have.
  • · Identify and then discard old principles that no longer serve a positive purpose in your life.
  • Accept yourself as you are and be at peace with everything that surrounds you.
  • Maintain a positive atmosphere around you. Hang out with optimistic people. If there is someone in your environment with a negative mindset, show them your beliefs and let the pessimist learn from your example, releasing their fear on the path to positive thinking.

The essence of positive thinking is to see in life not obstacles and shortcomings, failure and need, but to perceive it as a chain of positively resolved opportunities, favorable desires that should be cultivated in oneself and in others. However, not everyone can accept the principles of positive thinking, although it is necessary to strive for this.

One of the important places in the theory of positivism is occupied by the work of Norman Vincent Peel - "The Power of Positive Thinking". The practice described in it is based on the interweaving of religion, psychology and psychotherapy.

Peel's philosophy is based on faith in oneself and in one's powers and abilities, given by God. Faith in the human spirit, which is the source of human strength and the awakening of which is necessary to achieve accomplishments, contributes to success.

Usually people spend their lives in constant confrontation with troubles and in their striving to the top do not stop complaining about the difficulties that accompany their path. There is even such a concept - bad luck, but along with it there is also strength of mind. And there is no reason to constantly give up, complaining about the circumstances and not showing the potential for struggle inherent in everyone.

One of the ways available to the individual is to let the difficulties be controlled by the mind and eventually face the fact of their prevalence in life. If you follow the path of getting rid of the negativity of your thoughts, then each person is able to overcome obstacles that would otherwise break him. As Peel himself says, everything stated in the book is from God, it is he who is the Great Teacher of mankind.

First of all - faith in one's own strengths and talents, if personal abilities are not realized, then success cannot be achieved, in this case a feeling of inferiority, bordering on the collapse of plans and desires, will interfere. But it is the feeling of self-confidence that contributes to personal growth and the achievement of goals.

Peel's recommendations for changing the internal position are based on the technology of clearing the mind, which should be done at least twice a day. Fear and hopelessness, regret and hatred, resentment and guilt, all this should be disposed of and thrown away. The mere fact of the efforts made in this direction in itself brings relative relief.

However, emptiness does not exist, and here, new negative thoughts come to the place of distant negative thoughts, but so that they are not negative again, you need to strive to receive positive emotions so that thoughts are constructive and positive.

To do this, during the day you should cultivate in yourself pacifying images that would have a positive effect on the soul and personality. Such images include the impressions of contemplating the sea surface in the moonlight or the silence and tranquility of a centuries-old pine forest, for example. Articulation helps images, because every word has power. By pronouncing the word "calm", for example, a person is quite capable of causing inner peace. Prayers and passages from the Holy Scriptures have tremendous power, by reading them you can achieve true peace.

To control your internal state, you should have hobbies, because only after immersion in some positive activity, a person can get rid of the feeling of fatigue. Otherwise, energy flows through the hopelessness of idleness and idleness.

The absence of positive life events leads to the degeneration of the individual and vice versa, the deeper the immersion in a significant type of activity, the more positive energy and the less opportunity to get bogged down in minor troubles. There is a simple formula for overcoming adversity with the help of prayers and positive ideas.

positive thinking

Stressful situations overwhelm the modern life of most individuals. It is often difficult to cope with existing emotional stress. One of them is the way of cultivating positive thinking. It is this that will allow you to maintain inner peace and harmony.

  • The first thing that is necessary for mastering positive thinking is the realization that each person creates his own house of happiness.
  • The second thing that should not be avoided is the desire to understand all the problems that haunt and gnaw.
  • The third principle of positive thinking involves setting goals and priorities. Clear goals and mental, in detail, modeling of their achievement are important. A powerful tool is the mental visualization of goals.
  • The fourth principle is a smile: "Laughter prolongs life."
  • The fifth principle is the ability to appreciate what is “here and now”, every moment is unique and will never happen again.
  • The sixth principle is optimism. Not the optimist who sees everything exclusively in a rosy light, but the one who is confident both in himself and in his abilities.

Positive thinking is an art

Spiritual balance, mental balance, they are promoted by true art - positive thinking. One of the greatest planetary forces in reality is the power of thought. Man is able to evolve to the greatest heights by the power of his own thought.

If the thought process is directed towards the negative, then instead of development, there will be a degradation of the personality, as intense as the person is active in his fall. The power of positive thinking is hidden in the imperviousness of a person who cultivates it in himself to the influence of anger and hatred, greed and pettiness, fear and meanness, that is, negativism in any of its manifestations.

The mastery of positive thinking is based on the human perception of oneself as material beings, consisting of flesh and blood, capable of satisfying not only physiological, but also psychological needs through the human body. Each individual reacts to his environment in a unique way, and it is precisely this reaction that will be the basis of his future. This postulate indicates that it depends only on the individual himself what future awaits him, joyful or some other.

Positive thinking is based on three main conceptual principles:

  • energy exchange;
  • the eradication of mental pollution;
  • interdependence of body and mind.

The exchange of energies lies in the fact that literally every emotion felt by an individual retains quite definite traces on his subtle body, subsequently influencing the line of his future thoughts.

In this regard, emotions are divided into those that give energy and those that take it away. To acquire harmony, one should plunge into a meditative state, give the mind the opportunity to modify thoughts in a positive direction, transform anger into mercy, sadness into gratitude.

It is practically impossible to eliminate completely unfavorable thoughts, but it is quite possible to achieve their transformation into favorable thoughts. There is an opinion that bad emotions clog the brain, among them swagger and jealousy, irascibility and gluttony, self-interest and lust, envy and recklessness.

First of all, it is necessary to get rid of them, because they are the projection of shortcomings on the physical and spiritual health of a person. The experiences of each person are reflected in himself and in the world around him, therefore, the statement about the interconnectedness of the human body with the thoughts generated by the brain should be accepted as an axiom. And in this connection, the emergence of the newest reality is possible.

The basis of the art of positive thinking is supposed to be the position of practice, broken down into twenty-eight days of unfolding thinking power. One such cycle may be enough to develop the internal capacity to bring about the desired changes. The author of the technique advises to use Thursday as a start - the day of well-being in the framework of the Bon teachings. Practice ends on Wednesday.

According to the essence of positive thinking and the practice that accompanies it, one will have to plunge into a meditative state, focus on a problem situation and - its mental destruction. You can deal with a problem in completely different ways, you can break it, burn it, crush it. The brighter the image of its destruction, the better.

It is quite possible that after the mental destruction of the problem, negative emotions associated with it materialize in the brain, but you should not pay attention to them, they will soon simply disappear.

I have always been distinguished by increased suggestibility and impressionability, and the ability to control reality through work with thoughts, through the representation of the desired state seemed to me very attractive in the method of "positive thinking" ...

Today, while surfing the Internet, on one psychological site I came across an article about positive thinking. Reading it, I could not believe that I was once seriously interested in this: diligently memorizing various affirmations, I believed that my life was about to change for the better ...

“If you can’t change the situation, change your attitude towards it”- the slogan sounded so tempting "positive thinking" promising new life through self-hypnosis of positive thoughts.

I have always been elevated suggestibility and impressionability, and the ability to control reality through work with thoughts, through the representation of the desired state seemed to me very attractive. Imagination is indeed a powerful force, so it's no surprise that this method worked for me for a while.

Now I systematically understand that temporary relief and internal uplift were nothing more than ordinary swinging images, thoughts and imaginary sensations - "my life really began to change!". Alas, it was self-deception. The return to reality was very painful.

The artificiality of positive changes was revealed very soon. Despite the daily repeated repetition of positive phrases: “I love myself. I love life. I accept myself for who I am. I give my thoughts freedom. The past is over. I have peace of mind, ”life did not reciprocate. At the first encounter with a serious problem, my positive thinking cracked. Old thoughts, saturated with many years of self-hatred, began to return rapidly, and with them all the previous negative emotions and states, as before, remained a mystery to me. How the devils from the box jumped out of the dark corners of my soul children's on my parents who didn’t give me so much, who didn’t teach me how to adapt to life, who raised me helpless and uninitiated. Returned internal psychological constriction and eternal dissatisfaction with oneself. It was very difficult to part with the hope of liberation from the power of the past and lose faith in the possibility of accepting and loving myself like that, so my experience of positive thinking turned into a severe depression that lasted for several months.

Having recovered from the bad experience, I continued my search: I went through Norbekov’s training, studied on my own using Tensegrity cassettes, read books of fashionable esotericists, was fond of the technique holotropic breathing. But each time I went through the same scenario: a small temporary relief - and an inevitable one, each time becoming more and more protracted. knocked on my door just at the moment when disappointment and fatigue reached an almost critical point. My last depression in my life lasted for three whole years, during which time I lost interest in life, the desire to strive somewhere was gone. I slept for days on end, almost did not communicate with anyone, they tortured me headaches, and my only thought was: "God, ! My birth was a clear mistake!”

My sister became my guide to the world of "Systemic Vector Psychology" by Yuri Burlan. If not for her, I would not have paid any attention to this training. Unlike me, my sister never went through any training, she did not need it, everything was fine in her life - family, work, clear goals in life and amazing performance. I was very surprised that it was she who invited me to some kind of psychological training. Defending myself with distrust at first, I listened to what she was talking about the training of Yuri Burlan, and my faded interest began to flare up again.

The sister said things that sounded very tempting and convincing. In the end, I decided to take the risk for the last time in my life, saying to myself that if not now, then never again.

Now, having the knowledge gained at the Systemic Vector Psychology training, I understand very well why any methods based on working with thoughts provide only temporary relief and, in fact, are not working. These techniques cannot give the most important thing - INDEPENDENT thinking.

Our thoughts are not under our control. Not a single person has such psychic energy to control his thoughts! Thoughts are not levers of control, but bonded servants of our unconscious desires that control each of us. Thought is only a superficial layer of the psychic. The reasons for our behavior and all our emotional states lie much deeper than the level of consciousness - in ours. Training "Systemic Vector Psychology" by Yuri Burlan is a unique technique that allows you to work precisely at the level of the unconscious. This allows you to penetrate into the farthest corners of our soul, into the deepest layers of our mentality.

Each person is a certain system of desires. Our whole life is built on a rather simple principle of pleasure. The desire for pleasure is what drives us unconsciously, whether we are aware of it or not.

Realizing the hidden mental, we get the opportunity to see our real desires and understand the hidden reason that eludes us. internal restlessness. Only filling our innate desires with pleasure, realizing our essence and our destiny can give us a feeling of balance, joy, harmony, fullness of life (desires are not understood as a primitive desire to “eat delicious ice cream”, but real deep desires of our mental).

At the training "Systemic Vector Psychology" it becomes clearly visible that each of our thoughts is not random, it serves one or another of our unconscious desire. I want - and I have thoughts that provide pleasure in this my "I want" by action.

The only task that every person faces is to know himself, his desires and realize his innate potential to the maximum. Everything else in our life depends on how much we learn to do this.

It is not our thoughts that change our desires, but our desires, the state of their fullness and realization determine what thoughts are born in our head.

When something hurts, it gives one perception of the surrounding reality, but when we are healthy and full of energy, the perception is completely different. A realized, balanced person both thinks in a corresponding way, and in the same way manifests himself in space by actions.

Our thoughts, like beacon signals, show us how correctly we are moving through life, how balanced and satisfied we are within ourselves. If we begin to fulfill OUR desires, choose OUR destiny, live OUR life, then our thoughts and behavior change themselves, and with them the perception of the world around us, new horizons and new opportunities open up.

We do not need to look for answers in books, memorize facts and other people's conclusions. The reason for all our states is only within ourselves, it is there that we need to look for answers to the questions that our own life poses before us. To change it, you do not need to invent an imaginary reality for yourself and pull on other people's artificial statements. It is important to learn to look inside yourself, carefully monitoring every movement of thought, asking yourself the right questions: “Where does this come from in me? Why is this so?

You can change your life only by understanding the mechanisms of your desires.

Real thinking is formed only when we make real independent efforts.

A positive life scenario is the maximum realization of yourself and your desires!

Proofreader: Natalia Konovalova

The article was written based on the materials of the training " System-Vector Psychology» Tags: positive thinking

Today I am starting a series of articles on the topic of positive thinking. Personally, this topic is very interesting to me, because I see what a tremendous impact thoughts have on our lives, and what amazing results can be achieved if we change the way we think in the right direction. Therefore, I plan to cover this topic in sufficient depth. A lot of interesting and useful things are waiting for you ahead. There will be recommendations, practical exercises - in general, everything that is necessary in order to independently begin to form positive thinking in oneself.

But I want to start not with practical exercises. I want to start by discussing what positive thinking is. This phrase seems to be familiar to everyone, and its meaning is clear. However, it's really not that simple. Often the concept of “positive thinking” is greatly simplified, sometimes making it so strong that the whole original essence is lost.

In this article I want to characterize the main features that, in my opinion, are inherent in positive thinking. If you are striving to learn to think positively, I hope this will help you to more clearly see the goal worth striving for.

So, let's move on to the signs of positive thinking.

1. Positive thinking is a source of positive emotions and energy.

On the one hand, this is a very simple and understandable principle, but few of us realize what a huge impact it has on our lives. I suggest doing a little experiment. Think lemon. Imagine how you cut it, and drops of juice flow down the knife. Are you salivating? Just imagine the effect our thoughts have on our inner state! You just thought of a lemon - and you are already salivating!
Thoughts can affect not only salivation. They have a huge impact on emotions.

Let me give you an example of a situation that is probably familiar to many. Suppose you have some kind of unpleasant conversation at work, and this prospect causes you a lot of worries. You are at home, in a calm and sincere atmosphere, now it is Friday evening, ahead of the whole weekend. You enjoy communication with loved ones, or are busy with some pleasant chores. Your heart is light and joyful. Suddenly… something reminded you of work. And the thought of the upcoming conversation painfully pierces you, and an unpleasant painful feeling settles inside. Just one thought - and here you are, the emotional state changes instantly.

This was just a small visual illustration of how our thoughts affect our emotions. Now think about it: every minute a huge number of thoughts are born in our head, most of which we do not even have time to realize. Something happened, a thought came in response, left a barely noticeable mark in the soul and disappeared. And this happens all the time.

For example, yes.
You walk down the street, catch a glimpse of a bush from which almost all the leaves have flown, and sadly think that it is already autumn, and there are three dull months of winter ahead. The faces of passers-by float by, and your thoughts are carried away to an unpleasant situation that happened a few hours ago. You scroll it over and over again, living in a circle of unpleasant moments. You have thoughts that if you weren’t such a mess and a loser in life, the situation would have turned out quite differently. This makes you even sadder, and you can’t stop thinking about your troubles.

Or so.
You are walking down the street, you catch a glimpse of a bush that has lost most of its leaves, and then a pretty sign for a patisserie catches your eye, and you are happy to think that the next time you are in this area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe city, look there, because a cafe with such a sign is likely to have a very cozy atmosphere. The faces of passers-by float by, and you suddenly remember an unpleasant situation that happened a few hours ago.

You admit that in this situation it would be possible to behave differently, and everything would have turned out differently. But you know that everyone makes mistakes, so you forgive yourself for possible mistakes. You also think that a little later it is worth re-analyzing the situation in order to choose the best course of action in the future under such a set of circumstances. After all, you are sure that you have enough abilities and qualities to respond correctly in such situations. Thinking about it, you easily switch to planning the weekend, with pleasure thinking through the options for an interesting vacation.

So, every fleeting thought that arises in our head gives rise to a fleeting emotion. But our mental stream consists of such meaningless thoughts, and our mood is born from fleeting emotions. The flow of positive thoughts gives rise to positive emotions and gives a boost of energy.

2. Positive thinking is born from within, a person does not force himself to think positively.

This story often happens. A person feels that his thoughts negatively affect his emotions, mood, behavior, relationships with other people, etc. Then he decides that something needs to be done about it and it's time to learn to think positively. He begins to replace his "bad" thoughts with "good" ones, strives to see the bright side in everything. And what is the result? Very often this turns into a constant struggle, when a person fights with his own negative thoughts, trying to uproot them and plant in their place something, in his opinion, more positive.

The problem is that the origin of negative thoughts usually has its own long history, and their roots, accordingly, very often turn out to be long, penetrate the deep layers of the psyche, and just taking and tearing them out in fact turns out to be not only impossible, but even harmful. Therefore, the described attempts to cultivate positive thinking, as a rule, lead to nothing.

We will talk about how to form positive thinking in the following articles. Here I want to emphasize that positive thinking never comes from trying to force yourself to think in a certain way. Willpower is of no help here. If it were that simple, the vast majority of people would have learned to think positively a long time ago.

3. Positive thinking is realistic.

In human life, a variety of, and far from always joyful, events take place. There are quarrels and conflicts, failures and falls, illnesses, losses. So, positive thinking is by no means the thinking of a person looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.

A person who truly knows how to think positively is able to look directly at not only the good. To see the good, in fact, many people know how. But very few people know how to look directly into the eyes of the unsightly side of life, to be alone with their own pain and not try to escape from it, while maintaining faith in themselves, continuing to trust the world and look for positive ways to move forward.

Positive thinking is the ability to see a situation for what it is and find resources in it, whatever that situation may be.

4. Positive thinking inspires action.

This statement is a continuation of the idea of ​​a close connection between positive thinking and reality. If a person's thoughts are in no way connected with his actions and behavior, then they have no meaning, no matter how positive they may seem at first glance. Our mind is a tool that allows us to navigate reality and build our behavior in the best way for us. If a greater number of thoughts remain thoughts, there is a separation from reality, and the person goes into the world of fantasy. Therefore, when working on the formation of positive thinking, it is often worth asking yourself the question: “How do my positive thoughts affect the way I act?”

5. Positive thinking creates reality.

Another statement about the connection of positive thinking with reality. Through our inner attitude and actions, our thinking creates our reality. In esotericism, there is such a principle: reality is a mirror of what is happening in our minds. In everyday life, we often use the expression: "Our thoughts are material." Therefore, if something in your reality does not suit you, you should turn to yourself and try to understand: what forms such a reality inside you?
An interesting question is: why do our thoughts have such a huge impact on reality? And there are at least two answers to this question.

Answer #1. It is faster and more visible. We said that our thinking is connected with our internal state and our actions. A person acts on the basis of his ideas about the world, his belief in the possibility of certain events, his hopes or his fears. As a rule, without realizing it, he forms his life situation in full accordance with his convictions. In classical psychology, there is even such a term: "self-fulfilling prophecy." It's just about that.

In everyday life, you can find many illustrations of this pattern.

"All men are bastards!" - the woman thinks, showing suspicion and hidden aggression towards every representative of the opposite sex who meets on her way and, in fact, pushing away with her behavior any man who is ready for a normal healthy relationship.

“I do not have enough talents and abilities to achieve this goal,” someone thinks, and indeed, having encountered difficulties on his way, he sees this as a confirmation of his convictions and refuses to move forward, never once thinking about the fact that almost always and everyone encounters obstacles when achieving any significant goal.

The most difficult thing about such a prophecy is that for a person the situation looks like this. He has a certain belief, then his belief is confirmed in reality, and he is strengthened in the opinion that this belief is true. It turns out a vicious circle. Belief forms reality, and the resulting reality, in turn, confirms the correctness of the belief.

Answer number 2. This answer is not as clear as the first one, but personally I have been convinced more than once both in my own life and on the examples of other people that the regularity that I will now talk about works. This pattern is described by esoteric knowledge, and its meaning is as follows.

Those events, circumstances, people that are a reflection of what is happening in our minds are attracted into our lives. This is quite difficult to fully explain in terms of modern science. Therefore, it is easier to either believe in it or not believe it. My experience tells me that this pattern works and really exists. It doesn't matter how you explain it. More importantly, knowledge about it can be productively used.

If something does not suit me in my life, I always ask myself the question: what inside of me can create what I do not like? It is worth saying that the answer to this question is far from always obvious, and sometimes it can take quite a lot of time to search for it. Nevertheless, the answer found is the first step towards positive changes, which, as you probably already understood, relate to the inner reality (consciousness). And through changes in the inner reality, the outer reality inevitably changes.

6. Positive thinking is a way of life.

Usually, work on positive thinking begins like this. A person realizes that the way of his thoughts negatively affects one or more areas of his life. Wanting to change this state of affairs, a person sets to work on himself. If everything goes right, then gradually the way of thinking really changes, and in those areas of life where there were problems, positive changes appear. But such changes are not the end of the inner work, but only the beginning.

The fact is that, while working on oneself, a person needs to listen to himself more often and more carefully, to look deep into himself. And in the process of such listening to oneself, more and more new horizons are necessarily opened. More and more, those negative thoughts that were not realized at all before, or which were not given any importance, begin to be realized. There is a growing understanding of how these thoughts affect the internal state, behavior and life circumstances. And of course, there is a desire to make your inner space cleaner, getting rid of negative thoughts.

A negative thought is behind any unreasonable irritation, behind any resentment, guilt and many other emotional reactions. By transforming one's thinking, learning the art of thinking positively, a person necessarily learns to positively accept himself, other people, the world around him and life circumstances. He learns to treat himself and others with love. He learns to trust himself and the world. He is learning to be wise. Agree that such transformations are no longer changes in any one sphere of life. This is already something much deeper, affecting deep human values ​​and influencing the whole way of life.

These are, in my opinion, signs of positive thinking. I hope that getting to know them will help you in your work on yourself. And in the next article, we will look at what traps lie in wait for a person who begins to learn to think positively. I recommend to take a look. After all, if you are forewarned, then you are forearmed!