The Power Of Positive Thinking, Prayer and Poppycock! by Trevor Emdon
Have you noticed that the power of positive thinking has gone out of fashion? It’s been dismissed as poppycock in some quarters because too many people slammed it for turning us all into Pollyanna’s and daydreamers who’d all lost touch with “reality.” (Whatever that is!)
So I’d like to put the record straight.
Positive thinking is not about denying what is happening by deliberately thinking the opposite. In other words, if you’re broke it really isn’t going to change much if you run a litany through your brain that goes, “I’m wealthy, I’m wealthy …” In fact, that would be classed as downright deluded! And anyway, it’s pointless. Money will not magically appear in your bank account because you performed this ritual.
It isn’t positive thinking because even as you would say that to yourself you would know that it simply didn’t feel true. If your name is Harry and you kept on repeating in your mind, “My name is Jane” you would feel just as daft. Telling yourself lies just because they are couched in positive language was never intended to be the positive thinking instruction – but it’s what many people came to believe it was.
You need to feel good and you have no choice but to start from where you are, right? Now, if we can find a thought – or several – that meet those criteria you will have hit on the true power of positive thinking. Let’s stick with our example of an empty bank account and start again.
In that situation, maybe your habitual response would be to say to yourself or even out loud, “Oh, mother, I’m busted! What am I going to do?” (Or words to that effect). Those words would come from a place of fear and worry – even panic – would you agree?
The key to effective positive thinking is to identify that state of mind first and then to ask yourself what a better feeling state might be. Let’s try “confident.” What might a confident person say on discovering an empty bank account?
How about, “I’ll find a way through this – I always do.”
Hmmm. Does that feel a little better? Puts you back in control to some degree, doesn’t it?
It doesn’t solve the problem in the moment, but that’s not the goal. Positive thinking makes you feel better than before. From that slightly uplifted state new thoughts will spontaneously bubble to the surface. Your next thought might well be: “Yeah, I found a way to fix my car/pay my mortgage/help my son/you-name-the-situation…last time I was in trouble.” So now you’ve found an example of your resourceful self and you’ve climbed one more rung on the ladder out of your hole.
Allow me to give you a couple of pointers so that you can do this for yourself in any situation. First, stop, take a step back and remember that you’ve survived everything that’s happened so far in your life! Just allow that thought and if the “inner critic” wants to jump in with anything that begins with, “Yeah, but…” just slap its little wrist. It’s going to listen to YOU for a change!
You have survived – and so you can truthfully tell yourself that you have always found a way through all difficulties and adversity.
Second, if you really feel a situation is hopeless or beyond your control in any way, check that thought and ask yourself this: “Is that really, really true?” Your brain will want to say yes to begin with, but hold on just a moment. Can you prove, with a hundred percent certainty, that your evaluation is absolutely true?
Of course you can’t! Someone will always have found a way out of a tighter spot so there must be a way for you too! So now you can say to yourself that if it isn’t true that there’s no way out, then it must be true that there IS a way – and all you have to do is find it, or wait for it to show up.
The second thought is just as impossible to prove as the first one, but that one disempowered you, whilst the thought that there must be a way is empowering. Since you can choose what to think you might as well think the better thought!
If you’re still stuck, you have another resource available to you: prayer. No, I’m not suggesting that you put your hands together beseeching the Lord to put cash in your hand or to show you the winning lottery numbers for next week. What you do is simply send up a silent and heartfelt request which is simply this:
“I feel stuck/hopeless/helpless/(whatever). Please give me the resources I need to cope and get through this.”
That’s it. You don’t need to believe in God or be religious. Just ask unseen source energy or whatever concept you have of an invisible power. I have never known or experienced a time when this was not answered – often immediately and with some power too. Just be open to what shows up or pops into your mind.
Positive thinking is not poppycock. It is a powerful step towards self empowerment and taking charge of your life. I hope I’ve inspired you to give it a second chance – or maybe to try it out for the first time.
Get your copy of Trevor’s report, here >>
The Wellspring Of Success
Trevor Emdon trained in psychiatry and psychotherapy, studied Eastern philosophies and metaphysics, went to the U.S. to attend Anthony Robbins’ “Mastery University” and one day discovered that he not only had been happy for a good while, but that he was pretty good at passing his wisdom onto others – and it was changing lives.
He is in his 50s, happily married, lives in a gorgeous rural English village, has great health, and makes some of his income from his self help books online amongst other success coaching activities. His book, “The Wellspring of Success” which contains many more self improvement tips can be downloaded here.