What is the difference between positive thinking and denial? I’ve been pondering this lately and I thought I would share my thoughts with you and ask for yours.
For me, positive thinking is the equivalent of changing that negative broken record in my head. You know the one that says everyone is against you and that you have nothing to offer. You aren’t smart enough or pretty enough, etc., etc.
Positive thinking is retraining your brain to believe something different. Something like, everyone loves me. I am intelligent and capable. I have love and support all around me. Now that is positive thinking!
I’m sure most of you are familiar with The Secret and The Law of Attraction. I think that sometimes people misinterpret what the Law of Attraction is about. Essentially, the Law of Attraction says that you bring to you the equivalent of the energy you put out into the Universe. If you put negative thoughts (energy) out, you get negative results (energy) back. This is my VERY simplistic interpretation of a complicated law.
Does this mean that if you just think happy, positive thoughts your life will be nothing but roses? I think not. This, in my mind, is where people go wrong. This is what I call denial. You cannot make an unfortunate situation go away by pretending it isn’t there or by thinking happy thoughts about it.
The happy medium here is when you can reframe the negative thoughts in your head to something more positive and empowering AND, be realistic about your present reality.
This is my humble opinion. Am I off base here?
Let me know what you think. Are you thinking positively or living in denial?
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I have, for years at speaking engagements shared my opinions on this: Reality and attitude are two different things. Reality is the situation you are in, attitude you how you react in that situation. Traffic? Reality. Difficult people? Reality. Positive or negative is a choice!
Ann Evanston
Warrior Preneur
The Warrior is Within You
Thinking positively is a conscious effort to change undesirable past behaviors which are the product of subconscious reactions to held beliefs, values, and self identity. By thinking positively we begin to change our “Be”. Denial is refusal to acknowledge our part in the choices or lack of action that led to our current situation. By beginning to think positively, we take responsibility for changing our undesirable results. It doesn’t immediately guarantee a bed of roses, but sets our reticular activating system to begin finding opportunity in adversity. I.E. Think, act and be rich.
@actioncoachsjca
This is such an excellent post. It is important to keep ourselves in a high vibrational state, however we can still get upset or frustrated!
The key is to recognize, witness, and question those feelings, not buy into them.
I highly suggest Shadow Work, by Debbie Ford. Focuses on this exact point!
Hi,
I have been having some problems in my personal life and I came across this post when I googled the difference between positive thinking and living in denial. It was very helpful and confirmed my doubts. The law of attraction works in 3 steps:
1) Accepting that you have a problem and therefore asking the universe for a solution
2) Genuinely believing that the solution is on the way
3) Receiving the solution to the problem
Living in Denial is when you externally refuse to accept that you have a problem on the first place, while deep inside you know that you are fooling yourself. This way you are not even telling the universe what you want, how do you expect to get it?
Thanks once again for the post! It helped to clear my head!
Cheers! =)
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