Negative Thinking versus Positive Thinking -
We have a difficult task ahead of us in the problem of man-made climate change. This problem is a direct result of humanity’s negative behavior. Negative action comes from negative thinking.
Negative thinking is at the root of the current trouble with the Earth's environment, yet it is also responsible for the skepticism and denial that there is any problem with the Earth's environment at all.
Negative thinking is all around us.
Not exactly a positive idea, I know, and forgive the pun but it’s true.
When people say “think positive”, why is it even necessary? Shouldn’t we be thinking “positive” already?
“..It's like positive thinking. It's a wonderful idea, positive thinking. What it means is that I have a little smear of positive thinking, covering a whole mass of negative thinking. So thinking positive is not really thinking positive. It's disguising the negative thinking that we have.”
- Micheal Ledwith, Ph.D.
Western culture and society have been built on many things. Several of the most pervasive ideas in this society do not encourage positive behavior or thought: the quest for resources, dominion over Nature, and especially - taking resources from your neighbor (your neighbor could be the person living next door, another country, or another society, etc.).
Modern civilization understands so much more than we did even 100 or 200 years ago. Why do we cling to “old” ways of thought?
Perhaps it is because technology has moved much faster than the changes in human biology. That still does not explain why we cannot change our ways of thinking. If we simply choose a new direction, why can’t it just happen?
Much of our thought is concerned with “right now” instead of what might happen a week, a month, or a year from now. The Future is intangible. If you really ponder this idea, it becomes easier to see why many people assume that tomorrow will be much like today: we don’t have to worry.
Unfortunately, while we don't want to worry, we DO worry... and often. We worry about every conceivable thing that can go wrong. We worry about what
might go wrong. Look at the undercurrent of obsession with the “End of the World”. It is the “perfect scenario” for generating anxiety.
Of course “worry” and “anxiety” are other words for fear.
This is not surprising, considering that for much of human history we have been engaged in warfare or conflict of some kind. Western culture is also full of accounts where people of every economic and social group lie, deceive, manipulate, and bully others to gain some sort of money or power. Honor and integrity only exist for some people when it serves a purpose, so we are used to looking over our shoulder for the “Boogie Man”.
The social climate where this began is largely out of date, however, but it is troublesome to get rid of old paradigms.
As I said in Part 3 of “How We Think & What I Means for the Future”, many people are obsessed with their own self-interest. If people do not pull themselves out of negative ways of thought, then it is easy to stake a claim as a “victim”. As a “victim” it is easier to say that someone “owes reparations” rather than look at one’s own actions or thinking as a possible cause of problems. “Society” is the perpetrator, but people are involved in an endless cycle of finger-pointing.
All of this negativity is counter-productive to enjoyable living. Negative ways of thinking are disempowering. Negative ways of thinking have a strong effect on a person and their health. Prolonged negative thinking is, in essence, a poison to the body. It is the “placebo effect”: a sugar pill has little to do with self-healing - it is in the Mind. Negative thinking is the opposite of self-healing - it is self-created disease.
“You may be giving yourself negative messages about yourself. Many people do. These are messages that you learned when you were young. You learned from many different sources including other children, your teachers, family members, caregivers, even from the media, and from prejudice and stigma in our society.
“Once you have learned them, you may have repeated these negative messages over and over to yourself, especially when you were not feeling well or when you were having a hard time. You may have come to believe them. You may have even worsened the problem by making up some negative messages or thoughts of your own. These negative thoughts or messages make you feel bad about yourself and lower your self-esteem.”
- Article titled “Building Self-esteem, A Self-Help Guide: Changing Negative Thoughts About Yourself to Positive Ones” from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/publications/allpubs/SMA-3715/changing.asp
“For the average person in the World who lives life and considers their life boring, or uninspiring, is because they’ve made no attempt to gain knowledge and information that WILL inspire them. They’re so hypnotized by their environment through the Media, through television, through people living and creating ideals that everybody struggles to become - that:
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no one can actually 'become' in terms of physical appearance and definitions of beauty, and valor - [they] are all illusions -
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most people surrender and live their life in mediocrity - and they may live that life and ...their desire may never really rise to the surface - so they may want to be something else -
“…but if it DOES rise to the surface and they ask themselves ‘is there something more’, or 'why am I here? What is the purpose of Life? Where am I going? What happens when I die?' - they start to ask those questions - they start to flirt and interact with the perception that they may be having a nervous breakdown - and in reality what they’re doing is that they’re old concepts of how they view their life and the World start to fall apart…”
- Joe Dispenza, D.C.
If we change our pattern of thought, we can change our pattern of behavior.
Negative thinking says “it can’t be done”, and effort to make a difference is a "waste of time". Negative thinking does not see the possibilities - it only sees the limitations. Negative thinking is self-pity and lack of motivation.
Under this kind of thinking, critics of the man-made climate change concept are essentially saying “go away. We’re too apathetic and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Positive thinking is the idea that “I CAN do it”, and “I CAN make a difference”. Positive thinking never ceases to keep trying new approaches to a challenge. Positive thinking is valuing one’s self and being inspired.
Under positive thinking, the advocates to stop man-made climate change say “if we work together, there is no challenge that can stop us.”
It really comes down to a choice. I hope to see you in the company of those who want to make the Future a brighter place.
Right Thinking will lead to Right Action.
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