Ever since the publication of "The Power Of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale, the whole area of
positive thinking is one of the first things that many people think of when it comes to most questions related to how to change your life.
This makes sense as the nature and quality of your thoughts does have a significant bearing on your experience and interpretation of life.
This site is focused on two basic skills, learning how to think and learning how to not think.
Learning the art of positive thinking and developing the power of positive thinking falls very much into the category of learning how to think.
As we have discussed in other articles, the bulk of what we do think is repetitive and goes un-noticed and "under the radar" in our unconscious minds.
Arguably one of the first things we can do to assist the quality of our recurrent thoughts is to pay very close attention to our
"self talk" those repetitive thought patterns, the inner narrative, the "voices in our head".
There are two ways of achieving this, firstly by paying close attention to those things that we resist and secondly by developing a daily mindfulness practise developing a daily mindfulness practise that enables us to gain conscious awareness and visibility of our thoughts and states as they arise and specifically to consciously observe our resistance as it arises.
The most important aspect of our conscious mind is the faculty of choice and the setting of an intention to change the habits of our thoughts.
This is the start point for developing the power of positive thinking.
99.9% of our thoughts are habit-driven and in order to be able to benefit from the power of positive thinking we need to be able to change those thought-habits.
We do have the conscious choice over what we choose to think about, we have the capacity to set an intention to seek help and employ proven tools, techniques and processes to change our thoughts and thus to benefit from the power of positive thinking.
A very important caveat
It is a complete mistake to believe that the power of positive thinking - or the "law of attraction" for that matter - will give you complete control of your life and destiny and that you can have or become just about anything you want.
"The powers of the mind in the subconscious areas are considerable and can make a significant difference to how you interpret and respond to what happens to you, to the things that you attract, and to your overall quality of life experience.
But, and this is a very big "but", these subconscious powers do NOT create everything that happens to you.
In the bigger picture scheme of things these powers of the mind are actually very limited.
The real powers of the mind lie elsewhere..."
As with all the insights and practises we are discussing and sharing here on this site, balance in both perspective and practise is essential.
So from a developmental perspective it is very important that we understand how our minds function and that we do all that we can to ensure that our minds are working for us and not against us.
In this context I am a big advocate for all proven tools and processes(such as those featured on this site) that can further that end, and I encourage everyone to become acquainted with them and to gain a reasonable degree of mastery over their subconscious minds and thus to be able to benefit the power of positive thinking.
But let us also hold in mind the other side of the equation - the realm beyond our re-programmed subconscious minds - that we can only access by learning how to stop thinking.
So what are the basics of the power of positive thinking?
Well here is my list of some of the fundamentals that underpin the power of positive thinking and that form the basis of what is involved in consciously selecting what you choose to focus on:
Ever since the publication of "The Power Of Positive Thinking" by Norman Vincent Peale, the whole area of
