Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work
Most self-help guides tout the importance of positive affirmations. They tell you to repeat something positive to yourself every single day. They tell you to ditch all those negative thoughts and take a positive approach to everything that happens in your life. The problem? Pure positive thinking just doesn’t work. We can promise you that if you feel terrible right now, thinking about the positive side of things isn’t going to help, no matter how positively you think. You need to take action. Let’s explain.
Our Approach to Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work
Chances are you have landed on this page because you have tried to think positively, but it doesn’t help. There is a good reason for this.
When you set time aside each day to think positively, you feel fantastic at that moment. You have those positive thoughts floating around your head, and you can feel great about every situation. The problem? Eventually, you will have to stop thinking positively and go back to facing life’s realities.
This is why positive thinking doesn’t work. When you aren’t actively attempting to fix a problem, those negative thoughts will always creep back into your life. It is virtually impossible for people to think positively 24/7. Most people will need to set aside some time each day just to unwind and analyze situations in their heads. You can’t do this in the midst of things.
In some cases, positive thinking doesn’t help when there is some deep, underlying problem that you aren’t tackling. Your brain doesn’t like being lied to. For instance, if your main issue is that you lack confidence, repeating “I have confidence” to yourself doesn’t get to the heart of the problem. You aren’t going to magically improve your confidence levels just because you tell yourself that you are confident. It would be great if we could think like that. Most of us would be able to become the person that we want to be, and it would only take a few positive affirmations per day. How is that for power?
It is also worth noting that there is no shame in feeling negative emotions every so often. We need to feel anger, sadness, disappointment. This is all part of being human. It allows us to change. It allows us to form new relationships. If we are constantly trying to think positively, there is no chance that we will be able to grow as people, and that is just sad.
Now, we are not saying that thinking positively doesn’t help. It will have an impact on you. Thinking positively will help to get those happy chemicals flying through your body, and this is something that will drastically improve how you feel. Granted, it will only be a temporary boost, but sometimes, our lives are just not great most of the time, and we crave that little respite.
What You Need to Do
Now, we are not taking away the idea that you should think positively. Please do! We are simply saying just positive thinking doesn’t work to solve everything. However, you can use positive thinking to your advantage.
When you use positive thinking to give yourself a little bit of a perk-up, think about the sorts of things that you are looking to change about your life. Think about what is making you feel low. Think about what you are going to do to change them.
If you can pair the positive thinking up with actionable change, then we are 100% positive that you will feel much better about things. By all means, dedicate a small part of your day to thinking positively. Some of us do need that little bit of a boost when we are at the lowest of the low. However, the rest of your day, dedicate your time to improving yourself as a person. Work on what is causing you to think negatively anyway. Over time, you will find that this is the only way to stop those negative thoughts creeping into your life. It is the only way that you stop becoming sad, and it is the only way that you can become the person that you want to be.
Final Thoughts on Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work
Positive thinking doesn’t really work. Not when you think positively alone, at least. It will give you a minor boost, but this boost is only temporary. Think of it as a band-aid. As good as positive thinking is it will never make those underlying issues disappear. This means that when you are done with the positive thinking for the day, the things that are making you feel negative are going to remain. This is why you absolutely must combine your positive thinking with taking action. If you don’t then nothing will ever change for you.