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5.4 Positive Thinking and Attitude

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5.4 Positive Thinking and Attitude

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j.dabhi.182204
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Unit 5.

Positive Thinking
and Attitude
William James once said:

“The greatest discovery of my


generation is that human being can
change his life by changing the attitude
of mind.” For many people, it is indeed
so.
POSITIVE THINKING

• Positive thinking (PT) is related to optimism and negative thinking is


related to pessimism.
• Who is an optimist and who is a pessimist? Here is a simple test.
• Suppose that there is a glass of water that is half-filled. An optimist
would consider it as a glass that is half-filled with water, but to a
pessimist, it would be a glass that is half empty.
• The difference between these two types of personalities is the
difference in mental attitude. An optimist sees the brighter side but a
pessimist considers the gloomy aspect of a situation or a scenario.
• It is said that “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity,
whereas an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
Norman Vincent Peale (1952) defines
positive thinking as a positive mental
attitude that firmly believes that things
will soon be better and with that belief,
one can overcome any type of difficulty
in his favour.
Theory of Propositional Control

Whatever events take place in our lives, we


respond to that event by talking to
ourselves about that event. This is called
the theory of propositional control
psychologists. What we tell ourselves even
subconsciously will determine the way we
feel about the issue.
Benefits of Positive Thinking and Attitudes

The following are the major benefits of positive


thinking and attitude:
❖ Because positive thinking (PT) develops a strong
attitude towards achieving a desired goal, it gives
stability of mind, mental peace and equanimity.
❖ PT ends all speculative ramblings of the mind
about the many possible alternative outcomes,
which are confusing to a person. PT generates a
sense of surety, certainty and confidence.
Benefits of Positive Thinking and Attitudes

The following are the major benefits of positive thinking and


attitude:
❖ PT helps to generate self-belief and self-esteem, and is helpful
in developing strong will power. This will power acts like a
miracle in many cases.
❖ A person with positive thinking and attitude is likely to be
more healthy, calm and composed and is able to prevent many
types of stress-related problems.
❖ PT has been empirically found to be associated with strong and
stable relationships with family members, with working
colleagues and outsiders.
❖ PT helps you to move forward with your plans and programs
without any fear of failure or frustration.
Benefits of Positive Thinking and Attitudes

The following are the major benefits of positive thinking and attitude:
❖ PT has been found to be associated with greater creativity,
purposeful design of life and a stable and organized professional
career. Because PT gives guidance and direction, it becomes easier
for a person to find the trajectory for moving forward successfully.
❖ Dr. Irving Oyle was quoted as saying that people could live to be 150
years old if they just practised a combination of right thinking and
prayer.
❖ One of the most important advantages of PT is the motivation that it
generates in the human mind. If your attitude is positive, you can
presume the genuine outcome of your work and endeavour.
Positive Attitude and the Religious Scriptures

• The study of positive mental attitude (PMA) and its importance is a


development that became particularly important in the latter part of
the twentieth century. However, the importance of PMA was
recognized much earlier.
• Religious scriptures and discourses have often placed greater
emphasis on positive thinking and attitudes. For instance, according
to the Dalai Lama, a renowned Buddhist monk, everybody can be a
Buddha if all negative emotions can be eliminated.
• Thus, indirectly, he speaks about the importance of positive thinking.
Negative emotions arise from the misconception of reality.
HOW TO DEVELOP POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND THINKING?

The development of positive attitude (PA) requires constant and


consistent practice and endeavour. The following tips are helpful for
developing positive attitude:
✓ If you work with determination, it is not difficult to develop PA.
✓ It is necessary to concentrate on strong personal factors and put
more stress on those factors while minimizing the role of other
factors. In this context, a SWOT analysis is perhaps helpful.
✓ It is necessary to have strong faith.
✓ Many experts, including Peale, advise people to use the technique of
imaging (use of imagination) for developing PA.
HOW TO DEVELOP POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND THINKING?

✓ To develop positive attitude, banish your doubts, negative thinking and


imaginary fear.
✓ Experiential studies show that better results can be obtained by
completely surrendering oneself to God and thinking that God loves me
and He is my creator and sustainer; so, whatever He does will be best for
me.
✓ For the development of positive thinking, the mind must be completely
disciplined, kept under control and made free from temptation.
✓ In the development of positive attitude, family and friends can be of
immense use.
✓ Study of religious scriptures, cases of miracles and true stories of
supernatural healings (power) are all very encouraging to develop PA.
✓ Make positive thinking a habit. It is necessary to develop confidence and
commitment.
HOW TO DRIVE OUT NEGATIVE THINKING AND ATTITUDE?
All the points discussed earlier for developing positive attitude are also the points
that can help the elimination of negative attitude (NA). However, in this section,
some general guidance can be considered as follows:

❖ Constantly preach and practice the idea that “if you think negative, you will get
negative.”
❖ There is close interaction between negative thinking and different types of
worries.
❖ In order to eliminate worries, apply your reasons for winning over the situation,
emphasise your strong points and leave the whole problem to God when you
cannot do anything to find an effective remedy.
❖ Make a situational analysis of every case you are enmeshed in and you will find
that many things that appear negative can really be positive.
HOW TO DRIVE OUT NEGATIVE THINKING AND ATTITUDE?
All the points discussed earlier for developing positive attitude are also the points
that can help the elimination of negative attitude (NA). However, in this section,
some general guidance can be considered as follows:

❖ Think that in many ways, you are the best. Play down your inferiority complex, if
any, your very ordinary and unassuming personality and so on, which are
generating negative feelings in you for a particular job.
❖ Train your mind. It is the mind that makes heaven of hell and hell of heaven.
Practice positive thinking and the negative thoughts will wither away. Try to
replace negative thoughts with positive attitudes.
❖ To ward off negative thoughts from your mind, try some yoga and meditation to
concentrate on positive thoughts.
❖ When the mind is preoccupied with negative thoughts, read some books that
encourage positive thinking and attitude, pray to God and have complete faith in
Him.
Thank You

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