Life would be so much easier if only we could scale positive thinking.
Imagine…
Just get as many people as possible to think positively about themselves (and the world) and, at some point, life would just get better and better for all of us.
There would be way more respect from everyone for everyone; so much less mindless competitive behaviour; no more acting out from an unconscious sense of lack.
When I first had an experience of thinking positively about myself and my possibilities, instead of choosing my habitual defensive, low self-esteem posture, it was like a light came on in my brain. Actually, I could do it! I could create a better life for myself. I wasn’t in some kind of prison. Or if I was, I was my own jailer. And I could just walk out.
And then I thought… what if we could scale this? What if we could get everyone to think positively?
I was actually kinda late in coming to this idea. Over in the States, people had been discussing it for some years. Richard Bandler and John Grinder had established the modality of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) back in the eighties and Tony Robbins had become a huge fan. It worked by identifying self-limiting beliefs and replacing them with expansive or positive self-beliefs.
Author Peter McWilliams created a whole scene from his book You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought. Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, revolving around a similar concept, garnered tens of millions of fans almost overnight.
For me, nineties and noughties California was a real-time experiment in trying to scale positive thinking to the max. And at some point, something became clear. It didn’t work. Or only had very limited effects.
It inevitably took a while for this realisation to sink in. Early nay-sayers were of course condemned and marginalised for their negativity about positive thinking!
Indeed, if you were heavily into the new-age scene back in the noughties, as I was, then you may recall a period when an entire group of people entered a state of mild psychosis, trying desperately to rid themselves of the thought that positive thinking wasn’t working!
But by now most of us have all but forgotten McWilliams’ book and NLP. Positive thinking? Been there, done that.
But why does positive thinking actually have only limited effects? Why can’t it scale in the way that, say, fear or anger can scale?
The answer is in the body. And the fact that we are not just all “frontal lobes.” And that our mind has used our body as a “dumping ground” for unexpressed emotions. We have energetic blocks within us because of this.
We might try to create a high level of positivity at a mental level, in terms of our self-image and our beliefs about what we can achieve. That is fine. But if our body is not on board with it, then we will soon run aground.
So, why should it be that the body apparently hijacks our forward development in this manner? Does it just want to keep us in low self-esteem?
No! The issue is that all the energy and emotion that has been repressed within us instinctively seeks its release. It wants to get out. And the way that it tries to achieve this goal is by seeking to drag us back into all the horrible old stories and feelings that our frontal lobes have hidden away.
Each of us has this push-pull dynamic going on within us. Our frontal lobes trying to move forwards towards a brighter future. Our body trying to drag us back into all the gunge that we have repressed. We are like a driver who simultaneously has his foot on the gas pedal and the brake.
The solution is that we must allow the past out. We cannot keep it repressed within. By developing a daily practice of Bioenergetics, bit by bit all the energy and emotion that has been repressed within becomes integrated. As this happens, we find it easier to move forwards. We have less subconscious reason to hijack our progress. We start to create positive change that stays with us. We don’t slip back.
Check out my online 52-week course Bioenergetics - The Journey. It’s deep, intense and challenging. But if you stick with it, you will be able to move forwards and create the life you want. And you get support from me along the way.
Thank you.
Great article!
This thread might be of interest: https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1450870655126163456
TL;DR most people's spiritual journey cannot be scaled since they are all uniquely complex. Paradoxically the ones who can be solved easily are held by people who are powerful leaders. Therefore "nerdy" interest works better than finding mediocre therapists or "gurus". Causes are a type of "unknown knowns" for spiritual development.
Don't think, just do, says common wisdom. Don't act, just think, says Slavoj Zizek (for great men who makes comical mistakes).