Positive Thinking, and the Negative Effects of It


Like with all individuals that look forward to putting a cap at self-doubt and people’s opinions, positive thinking might be the answer to it all. Truth is, it is not at all promising to be. What more is that it could be detrimental than it can be helpful at times.

How Positive Thinking Works

It is not uncommon that we get mixed up with people talking behind our back. The insecurities that we possess, can also create self-doubt. Hoping for the best, we assume that it’s time to switch the thinking around.

What we subconsciously don’t know about positive thinking is that the action itself creates what we call, “motivated forgetting“. Motivated forgetting tends to block all sorts of thoughts that we deem to be bad or thoughts that make us unhappy.

Motivated forgetting is the process of leveraging positive thinking to bandage (or cover up) negativity, and not to resolve it.

It also forces our thinking process sideways, thus helping us maintain control of our happiness. Although it may be useful, it may not be able to help in situations where we require critical thinking.

Positive Thinking is like Cocaine

In one study, led by the University of California, students were asked to spend some time each day visualizing themselves getting a high grade on their next exam. Incidentally, this caused the students to be overly confident, thinking they can just “simply” pass the exam without studying much. As a result, it caused students to obtain lower marks.

Likewise, it is like the ups and downs when playing with the seesaw in parks. It takes lots of courage when thinking critically, and lots of gratitude when thinking positively.

Mixing Positive Thinking, Critical Thinking, and Negativity

Furthermore, neglecting critical thinking may not be wise overall. Remember that obtaining true happiness also takes critical thinking to counteract negativity received.

How you may counteract negativity might require some thinking adjustments like figuring out whether or not the received “negativity” is worth pondering over in the first place. Instead of replacing positive thinking with critical thinking, leverage positive thinking to fuel critical thinking.

Have you learned something new today? Let me know in the comments below!

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