Why Positive Thinking Isn't Enough
By Janet MacDonald Kramer:
Has this ever happened to you?
You were contemplating an upcoming meeting with Someone Important. (Could it have been your lover, your ex, your boss, your neighbour?) With feelings of dread, you pictured yourself, trembling as you faced this person. You imagined how you'd turn red with embarrassment, or be thrown ass-over-teakettle out of their presence, or have a temper meltdown and do the throwing, or scurry away in embarrassment and frustration.
In your mind's eye, you pictured it all going horribly wrong, even though the meeting hadn't even happened yet!
In your mind's ear you told yourself, I know I will screw it up. I will forget what I want to say. I always lose my temper...
Then along came your best friend. You opened your mouth and worried out loud to your buddy about your fears. That's when your friend piped up with those dreaded words... the dreaded Pollyanna Positive Advice: "Oh, just think positively and you'll be all right".
Oh yeah, you think to yourself. I read a book about that once. Well, only part of the book, but I guess I'll try it...
In the Upstairs of your mind, where you do your conscious, day-to-day thinking, you try out some shiny new positive thoughts: I can do it. I'll remember everything I need to say. I won't lose my temper, or turn red and faint, or try to kill the guy... whoops, that's maybe not so positive; ah... I am serenely confident. You attempt to picture a happy little back-slapping interview, with great schmoozy grins on your face and on the other guy's.
Meanwhile, down in the vast Main Floor Headquarters of your mind, your powerful beliefs, attitudes, and self-image are aroused and annoyed by your new positive thought. Like a new and unwelcome upstairs tenant, that noisy positive nonsense must be put in its place...
When you think, I can do it, downstairs that old well-rehearsed thought says, Yeah, right, in your dreams, dummy. When you visualize being calm and confident, that old, practiced technicolour video of stumbling incoherence plays on your mental screen.
Who do you think has the power: the new tenant, or the owners downstairs on the Main Floor? Unless you know how to integrate the new thoughts deeply in your being, your old negatives are going to win!
I tell my students that positive thinking is "B.S".
No, that doesn't stand for what you're thinking, or even "bovine stools" either, although it's often appropriate. "B.S." stands, in our teaching, for "Beta Stuff". Beta is the term used in neuro-science to describe the brainwave activity associated with the outer conscious, day-to-day, eyes-open mental processes. It's in the electrical frequency range of 15 to 20 cycles per second, or faster. That's the predominant brainwave activity we'd find while you're attempting to do some shallow positive "thinking".
When you focus your thoughts inwards to fantasy or daydreaming, more Alpha brainwave activity ( in the range of 8 to 15 cps) begins to manifest. If you are physically relaxed and close your eyes, even more Alpha will be produced. If you practice certain types of mental training or dynamic meditation, the Alpha spreads, its amplitude increases, and both brain hemispheres may begin to show synchronous activity.
Slower frequencies such as Theta (4 to 8 cps) and Delta (.5 to 4 cps) are associated, in untrained people, with drowsiness and with deep sleep.
What does all this brainwave stuff have to do with your attempts to change your negative thinking?
While your conscious thoughts may visit in your mental Upstairs, (Beta brainwaves) they live in your spacious Main Floor.( Alpha and Theta brainwave activity.) To effectively install a new thought pattern, it helps to be on the Main Floor, rather than to shout down the stairs!
Here are some tips for creating Positive Being rather than mere Positive Thinking:
1) Consider the words that describe the new thought that you want. "I am superbly confident for this meeting", rather than, "I am a shambling bag of petrified protoplasm.."
2) Write the words in your journal, on cards for your wallet, or full colour posters on your laser printer. Sky writing would be fun, if the budget allows...
3) Think about what the positive outcome will look like, when you manifest it. Warning: Don't go down the simplistic Garden Path of "visualize your goal and it will be yours". Too many people have only a superficial understanding of this. They close their eyes, attempt to "visualize" and then complain that they can't see anything. Unless someone has slipped some LSD into your non-fat double mocha cappuccino, you won't be experiencing IMAX full colour on your closed eyelids. So relax and simply think about what your positive outcome would look like, if you could see it.
4) Add other sensory modes of thinking: Think about what your positive outcome will sound like, and feel like when you experience it. These are the sensory modes neglected in most motivational trainings and philosophies, which teach visualization only. Yet these auditory and kinesthetic thought modes are equally, if not more important to a substantial percentage of the population.
5) Now that you have prepared the words, the mental images, the mental sounds, and the mental feelings, you have a Beta Level design for the positive thought. Your next project is to take it downstairs to Alpha, to your Main Floor Headquarters!
If you have been trained to do a controlled Alpha Process, such as in the DynaMIND training, you will know how to enter and maintain a deep Alpha state. In that state, you can reprogram yourself with your desired new thought pattern. This is where you enter your Power and go far beyond ordinary "Positive Thinking". You will use the Virtual Goal Technique, or the STAR Imprinting Technique, , or the SPASE Criteria for designing your new Thought Pattern. You'll find yourself using the Finger Trigger Technique occasionally through the day, if your mind strays into a negative pattern.
6) Even if you haven't yet learned DynaMIND, take action on your intended goal. Passivity is not positivity here! Pay attention to the feedback the universe provides to you. You may find yourself initiating new actions and behaviours that reflect the positive thought pattern. This feedback tells you that you are on the right track. Keep doing what you're doing!
You may find instead that you are still stuck. This is feedback that you need to reassess your positive outcome. Ask yourself: do you have the skills or knowledge to create the outcome? If you want to be a brain surgeon, and you're currently driving a cab, it will take education as well as positive thinking to get a scalpel into your hand!
You may sabotage your own progress. You know, the old diet experience where you celebrate "losing" ten pounds by indulging in a maccaroni and chocolate cake festival! And suddenly, you've "found" those ten pounds again! This is because Downstairs in your mind, the Fat Program is still running!
You may find that you are feeling resistance or emotional conflict. This feedback means that downstairs in Mental Headquarters, there are some Thought Programs that have other plans for you. These old Thought Programs are still pulling your strings...
Now we're back to the opportunity you arrived at, as you read this, for DynaMIND training, so that you can learn to enter your Power through accessing the Alpha/Theta Levels of Mind. You know that you'll benefit from training to gain a deeper level of skill, to change those negative Thought Patterns once and for all!
No more shallow "Positive thinking".
Is it time for "Positive BEING"?
As a wise teacher of mine once told me, you have to do it yourself and you can't do it alone.
As you become more Conscious, you contribute to the evolution of Consciousness of humanity as a whole.
For current course details phone 1-888-788-6463 or 905-954-0297
Article copyright Janet MacDonald Kramer