Re: Article: The Power of Negative thinking

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the article. What's your take on it?

>

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/the-positive-power-of-negative-\

thinking.html?_r=1

>

> " The Power of Negative Thinking

> By OLIVER BURKEMAN

> Published: August 4, 2012

>

> LAST month, in San , Calif., 21 people were treated for burns after

walking barefoot over hot coals as part of an event called Unleash the Power

Within, starring the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. If you're anything like

me, a cynical retort might suggest itself: What, exactly, did they expect would

happen? In fact, there's a simple secret to " firewalking " : coal is a poor

conductor of heat to surrounding surfaces, including human flesh, so with quick,

light steps, you'll usually be fine.

>

> But Mr. Robbins and his acolytes have little time for physics. To them, it's

all a matter of mind-set: cultivate the belief that success is guaranteed, and

anything is possible. One singed but undeterred participant told The San

Mercury News: " I wasn't at my peak state. " What if all this positivity is part

of the problem? What if we're trying too hard to think positive and might do

better to reconsider our relationship to " negative " emotions and situations?

>

> Consider the technique of positive visualization, a staple not only of

Robbins-style seminars but also of corporate team-building retreats and business

best sellers. According to research by the psychologist e Oettingen and

her colleagues, visualizing a successful outcome, under certain conditions, can

make people less likely to achieve it. She rendered her experimental

participants dehydrated, then asked some of them to picture a refreshing glass

of water. The water-visualizers experienced a marked decline in energy levels,

compared with those participants who engaged in negative or neutral fantasies.

Imagining their goal seemed to deprive the water-visualizers of their

get-up-and-go, as if they'd already achieved their objective.

>

> Or take affirmations, those cheery slogans intended to lift the user's mood by

repeating them: " I am a lovable person! " " My life is filled with joy! "

Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that such statements make

people with low self-esteem feel worse — not least because telling yourself

you're lovable is liable to provoke the grouchy internal counterargument that,

really, you're not.

>

> Even goal setting, the ubiquitous motivational technique of managers

everywhere, isn't an undisputed boon. Fixating too vigorously on goals can

distort an organization's overall mission in a desperate effort to meet some

overly narrow target, and research by several business-school professors

suggests that employees consumed with goals are likelier to cut ethical corners.

>

> Though much of this research is new, the essential insight isn't. Ancient

philosophers and spiritual teachers understood the need to balance the positive

with the negative, optimism with pessimism, a striving for success and security

with an openness to failure and uncertainty. The Stoics recommended " the

premeditation of evils, " or deliberately visualizing the worst-case scenario.

This tends to reduce anxiety about the future: when you soberly picture how

badly things could go in reality, you usually conclude that you could cope.

Besides, they noted, imagining that you might lose the relationships and

possessions you currently enjoy increases your gratitude for having them now.

Positive thinking, by contrast, always leans into the future, ignoring present

pleasures.

>

> Buddhist meditation, too, is arguably all about learning to resist the urge to

think positively — to let emotions and sensations arise and pass, regardless of

their content. It might even have helped those agonized firewalkers. Very brief

training in meditation, according to a 2009 article in The Journal of Pain,

brought significant reductions in pain — not by ignoring unpleasant sensations,

or refusing to feel them, but by turning nonjudgmentally toward them.

>

> From this perspective, the relentless cheer of positive thinking begins to

seem less like an expression of joy and more like a stressful effort to stamp

out any trace of negativity. Mr. Robbins's trademark smile starts to resemble a

rictus. A positive thinker can never relax, lest an awareness of sadness or

failure creep in. And telling yourself that everything must work out is poor

preparation for those times when they don't. You can try, if you insist, to

follow the famous self-help advice to eliminate the word " failure " from your

vocabulary — but then you'll just have an inadequate vocabulary when failure

strikes.

>

> The social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has persuasively argued that the

all-positive approach, with its rejection of the possibility of failure, helped

bring on our present financial crises. The psychological evidence, backed by

ancient wisdom, certainly suggests that it is not the recipe for success that it

purports to be.

>

> Mr. Robbins reportedly encourages firewalkers to think of the hot coals as

" cool moss. " Here's a better idea: think of them as hot coals. And as a San

fire captain, himself a wise philosopher, told The Mercury News: " We discourage

people from walking over hot coals. "

>

> Oliver Burkeman is the author of the forthcoming book " The Antidote: Happiness

for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking. "

>

[Guest guest]

Well I find it interesting that this stance towards " positive thinking " and

affirmations is being repeated now in various corners of the psychological

community. The idea that taking a step back from emotions, gaining some

distance and objectivity towards them (ie defusing)is more useful than forcing

oneself to " think positive " . Also that this idea isn't really new at all, but

is something that historically has been recognized in various philosophies.

Kate

> >

> >

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/the-positive-power-of-negative-\

thinking.html?_r=1

> >

> > " The Power of Negative Thinking

> > By OLIVER BURKEMAN

> > Published: August 4, 2012

> >

> > LAST month, in San , Calif., 21 people were treated for burns after

walking barefoot over hot coals as part of an event called Unleash the Power

Within, starring the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. If you're anything like

me, a cynical retort might suggest itself: What, exactly, did they expect would

happen? In fact, there's a simple secret to " firewalking " : coal is a poor

conductor of heat to surrounding surfaces, including human flesh, so with quick,

light steps, you'll usually be fine.

> >

> > But Mr. Robbins and his acolytes have little time for physics. To them, it's

all a matter of mind-set: cultivate the belief that success is guaranteed, and

anything is possible. One singed but undeterred participant told The San

Mercury News: " I wasn't at my peak state. " What if all this positivity is part

of the problem? What if we're trying too hard to think positive and might do

better to reconsider our relationship to " negative " emotions and situations?

> >

> > Consider the technique of positive visualization, a staple not only of

Robbins-style seminars but also of corporate team-building retreats and business

best sellers. According to research by the psychologist e Oettingen and

her colleagues, visualizing a successful outcome, under certain conditions, can

make people less likely to achieve it. She rendered her experimental

participants dehydrated, then asked some of them to picture a refreshing glass

of water. The water-visualizers experienced a marked decline in energy levels,

compared with those participants who engaged in negative or neutral fantasies.

Imagining their goal seemed to deprive the water-visualizers of their

get-up-and-go, as if they'd already achieved their objective.

> >

> > Or take affirmations, those cheery slogans intended to lift the user's mood

by repeating them: " I am a lovable person! " " My life is filled with joy! "

Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that such statements make

people with low self-esteem feel worse — not least because telling yourself

you're lovable is liable to provoke the grouchy internal counterargument that,

really, you're not.

> >

> > Even goal setting, the ubiquitous motivational technique of managers

everywhere, isn't an undisputed boon. Fixating too vigorously on goals can

distort an organization's overall mission in a desperate effort to meet some

overly narrow target, and research by several business-school professors

suggests that employees consumed with goals are likelier to cut ethical corners.

> >

> > Though much of this research is new, the essential insight isn't. Ancient

philosophers and spiritual teachers understood the need to balance the positive

with the negative, optimism with pessimism, a striving for success and security

with an openness to failure and uncertainty. The Stoics recommended " the

premeditation of evils, " or deliberately visualizing the worst-case scenario.

This tends to reduce anxiety about the future: when you soberly picture how

badly things could go in reality, you usually conclude that you could cope.

Besides, they noted, imagining that you might lose the relationships and

possessions you currently enjoy increases your gratitude for having them now.

Positive thinking, by contrast, always leans into the future, ignoring present

pleasures.

> >

> > Buddhist meditation, too, is arguably all about learning to resist the urge

to think positively — to let emotions and sensations arise and pass, regardless

of their content. It might even have helped those agonized firewalkers. Very

brief training in meditation, according to a 2009 article in The Journal of

Pain, brought significant reductions in pain — not by ignoring unpleasant

sensations, or refusing to feel them, but by turning nonjudgmentally toward

them.

> >

> > From this perspective, the relentless cheer of positive thinking begins to

seem less like an expression of joy and more like a stressful effort to stamp

out any trace of negativity. Mr. Robbins's trademark smile starts to resemble a

rictus. A positive thinker can never relax, lest an awareness of sadness or

failure creep in. And telling yourself that everything must work out is poor

preparation for those times when they don't. You can try, if you insist, to

follow the famous self-help advice to eliminate the word " failure " from your

vocabulary — but then you'll just have an inadequate vocabulary when failure

strikes.

> >

> > The social critic Barbara Ehrenreich has persuasively argued that the

all-positive approach, with its rejection of the possibility of failure, helped

bring on our present financial crises. The psychological evidence, backed by

ancient wisdom, certainly suggests that it is not the recipe for success that it

purports to be.

> >

> > Mr. Robbins reportedly encourages firewalkers to think of the hot coals as

" cool moss. " Here's a better idea: think of them as hot coals. And as a San

fire captain, himself a wise philosopher, told The Mercury News: " We discourage

people from walking over hot coals. "

> >

> > Oliver Burkeman is the author of the forthcoming book " The Antidote:

Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking. "

> >

>

[Guest guest]

thank you for taking the time to post this article for us. I am expecially glad

to see that it was published in the NYTimes! It is very well written and,

perhaps, will help more folks see the fallacy behind 'positive thinking'. i.e.

denying reality, believing things shouldn't be the way they currently are.

Wanda

>

>

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/the-positive-power-of-negative-\

thinking.html?_r=1

>

> " The Power of Negative Thinking

> By OLIVER BURKEMAN

> Published: August 4, 2012

>

>