Why Is Positive Thinking Ineffective, and What Can Replace It?

In this article, we will delve deeper into the three principles of mind, awareness, and thought in order to arrive at the conclusion that we do not need to try to think positively in order to live a happy and fulfilling life, but rather that all we need is understanding and not taking our thoughts seriously.

By attempting to think positively all of the time, you are attempting to avoid negativity and accept only the positive rather than everything.

The latest advice on how to think more positively fills the self-development world, but trying to think this way all the time is neither the solution to living a more fulfilling life nor is it even effective.

The purpose of this article is to persuade you that attempting to think positively all of the time will cause you to miss out on many life experiences.

Thoughts are neither positive nor negative

We choose the meaning behind each of our thoughts. They don’t have a specific meaning; rather, they are associated with general feelings, but each of these feelings has a different meaning for each of us because our thoughts are all unique.

Any idea that you perceive as either positive or negative is only so because you have labeled it as such. Why, then, should thoughts that make us happy be positive and those that make us sad be negative?

Is it really bad to have sad thoughts if you lose someone you love so much? Would you rather be content with losing them? Depending on your perspective, happiness in these situations might even be a bad feeling.

Understanding versus judgment

Judgment categorizes our thoughts as positive or negative, whereas understanding helps us accept that we are thinking beings and that we have no control over what we think or how we think. Once we realize this, we can finally reflect on our thoughts.

We can stop taking our thoughts seriously because we are aware that they are not real. None of our thoughts are actual; they only appear to be real when we give them our full attention, and it is this attention that gives them this trait. However, just because you have an idea does not mean that you should act on it or reject it, because it is only an idea.

When we internalize our thoughts, we feel the need to reclaim some of our power by attempting to embrace good and shun evil. We act in this way because we are afraid that our thoughts are real, that they are in charge of us, and that we want to regain control before they force us to behave in ways that we don't like.

The fear

You might work particularly hard to think positively during the darkest moments, when the world appears to be a very dark place and you are unable to see any glimmer of hope. You are constantly prepared to fight the next unfavorable thought that enters your head because you are extremely afraid of what is happening there, but that is not helpful.

The most crucial thing is to purge feelings of fear from your thoughts. You need to stop categorizing your thoughts as positive or negative and stop labeling them as such, but most importantly, you need to stop being afraid of your thoughts.

Try to approach each idea with love and sympathy, because these emotions are stronger than fear and will help you let go of any urge to judge or alter your way of thinking. Without love and sympathy, all of your ideas are meaningless until you choose the one that will be most beneficial to you.

When we believe that our thoughts are real and in control of us, we become afraid of the thoughts that we have determined to be negative. This fear of negative thoughts causes us to want to get rid of them while simultaneously attempting to control our thoughts.

The idea becomes just an idea, nothing more, nothing less, if we choose to view all of our thoughts as meaningless until we choose to attribute meaning to them through faith and concern. If we do this, we won't feel the need to judge our thinking or attempt to control that which cannot be controlled.

Regardless of their content, we then grow to have empathy for our thoughts, and this empathy creates a whole new level of understanding that leads one to question why they ever felt the need to judge, fear, or alter their thoughts in the first place.

How the Mind Works?

The mind functions as a projector, reflecting our thoughts like a movie that we can watch; however, we are not the movie and thus not our thoughts. Sure, we can direct the movie by adjusting the speed, color, and sound, but we can't create it, and we don't even get to choose which movie we watch.

The source of our thoughts

Despite the fact that it cannot be expressed in words, this mystery continues to elude people from all walks of life. What we do know is that as we listen to the radio, we receive and observe our thoughts rather than creating them from scratch.

What are we in charge of?

Although we do not have the authority to choose which radio station broadcasts, we do have control over the station we choose to listen to, just as we do with the thoughts we choose to think.

But just as we cannot stop ourselves from thinking, we have no control whatsoever over the thoughts that enter our minds. However, we can choose which ideas to believe.

Every day, 60,000–100,000 thoughts come to our minds, according to estimates. We do not choose any of these thoughts, and the majority of them go unnoticed.

We cannot create positive thoughts

The fact that we cannot produce thoughts is perhaps the most crucial realization in comprehending why positive thinking is ineffective. The process of forming thoughts is something we can't really control.

Even though one may say, "Well, I will decide to think of a positive thought," this is a thought that they did not create; rather, they only listened to it in their mind. Since we do not create our thoughts, this also suggests that we cannot create a positive thought. It's important to distinguish between selecting and coming up with a thought.

You can choose to believe that you deserve praise for everything you have accomplished today whenever you realize that you are being too hard on yourself. This is an illustration of selecting a helpful thought. Only after you have uncontrollably created the thought in your mind can you decide whether to pay attention to it and choose to believe it.

If we had the ability to create "positive" and helpful thoughts, we would do so constantly. If we could create one, we would without a doubt do so, but we can't, and even when we need them, thoughts of this kind are frequently absent. Instead, we must wait for them to come to us; if we are too preoccupied or confused, we risk missing them.

As wonderful as the mind is, it can only concentrate on one thought at a time, which we choose rather than create. This thought is difficult for some people to accept, especially if they want to think that they are in control of their thoughts. Even the thought that you can't control your thoughts can be depressing, but all you have control over are the ones you choose to give attention to.

Only when you are free from the need or desire to control will you be able to truly experience freedom of mind.

Where freedom lie

Acceptance rather than judgment is the path to freedom because a mind that rejects a thought because it has been negatively judged is not a free mind; rather, an anxious mind is constantly looking for its "enemies" in the form of unfavorable thoughts. A mind that worries about getting hurt is not free; it is suspicious.

The true freedom of the mind does not lie in eradicating certain thoughts but in accepting them. A free mind does not judge itself but accepts what arises in it and realizes that it need not attempt to control that which it cannot. The key to true mental freedom is to embrace every thought, not to shun some of them.

A more serene method of handling our feelings and thoughts

We typically categorize negative thoughts as such because of the emotion they arouse and because we view common emotions like resentment, anger, guilt, and frustration as negative. We also believe that the thoughts that give rise to them are unfavorable. Our emotions are clues that point us in the direction of the thoughts that gave rise to them, not so we can judge them but so we can comprehend them.

"Feelings are a measure of our current thoughts." George Pransky, author of The Relationship Handbook

The messages we receive are always a reflection of the thoughts we are having at the time. Since every thought we have results in an emotion, any thought—positive or negative—will produce an emotion that we can use to better understand the thoughts we are having at the time.

If you pay attention to your feelings without judgment, you will realize that they are a great indicator of which thoughts you pay the most attention to, and understanding is a much more peaceful approach than constant judgment.

Negative effects of constantly attempting to think positively

You will be very dissatisfied if you believe that you should always think positively because you will unavoidably fail, and your frustration at this will cause you to judge yourself for failing to exert control, which will eventually cause you to alternate between positive and negative thoughts constantly.

This constant mental switching is draining and uses up a lot of mental energy that would be better spent on creativity.

How does positive thinking contribute to our increased judgment?

Every thought must be judged as either positive or negative in order to distinguish between them. Additionally, in order to be ready to deal with negative thoughts throughout the day, you must constantly monitor your thoughts. This teaches us to evaluate our thoughts on a regular basis and then categorize them as either positive or negative, and it's stressful enough to think about doing it.

We do not see the world as we live it; rather, we live our thoughts as we see the world. As a result, whenever we judge ourselves, including our thoughts, we judge the world and those around us, which is not a healthy way to live.

When we judge a thought to be negative, we give it power; if we do not judge the thought, it will pass and disappear on its own. Allowing the thought to pass through your mind makes room for the next thought, but focusing on a negative thought prevents the next thought from appearing until we stop focusing on the previous ones.

Peace comes from being able to examine your thoughts objectively, whereas constantly trying to think positively pushes you away from that objective and raises your anxiety.

In conclusion

Try to treat your thoughts with more peace and understanding rather than constantly judging them.

To do this, ponder these two insightful questions:

1. Is this thought actually true?
2. Is this thought helpful?