My Take On…Positive Thinking

Hmm…another post request! If you keep helping me like this by suggesting topics, this blog will surely become very large, very soon! Thank you readers! J

So I was asked to write a post on positive thinking, and I was specifically requested to “build up confidence for the teenage soul”. That’s something nice (even though it sounds like something you see on a Chicken Soup book cover) and worthwhile, using any creative outlet to evoke good feelings in its appreciators. However, there’s no use in giving someone a ‘false hope’. For example, if I told you I’d pick you up from school at 4 and so you’d wait for me without your own vehicle and without money for even a bus ticket, and I never come. I don’t want to give that type of a false hope. What I mean to say is, I badly want to encourage, but I also want that encouragement to be meaningful. More like “realistic optimism”…

So, what is positive thinking?

Just a happy thought? I don’t think so. Will thinking about a Dairy Milk silk give a girl the confidence she needs for life?

And girls think guys are disgusting. Pfft.

No, unless she’s got pure sugar in her bloodstream, and that’s diabetes.

Imagining that you are in a better position than you really are? Well, my English teacher once said that you could become better by “cheating” yourself into thinking you’re something you’re really not. But if that was true, I’d be a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands. And if that were true, you wouldn’t consider me a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, you’d prefer to call me a delusional psychopath! And another thing, if I THOUGHT I was a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, I’d ACT like a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, and I bet I’d be way too proud of my own ability, WHICH DOESN’T EXIST! So that wouldn’t work either…

To me, there are two aspects to positive thinking.

1) Looking at the bright side of things:

“Oh look, it’s raining, now we can’t go out.” “Look at the bright side! We needed the rain after such a hot summer!” “Oh look, now the rain has not stopped for three days and is now a bit of a hindrance to working people.” “Look at the bright side! We could have had a cyclone instead!” “Oh look, the rain was actually due to a cyclone which caused thousands of people to lose their houses and property.” “Look at the bright side! At least they hadn’t lost their life!” “Oh look, the excessive rain from the cyclone has caused a flood and now, countless people have lost their lives.” “Look at the bright si-“ “Oh will you – “

Okay, let’s leave Mr “Bright Side” to his business, and learn what we can. Everything in life has pros and cons. We can’t really say “Hmm, the Samsung© Galaxy Y has 3 flaws, while the Apple© iPhone has 4 flaws, so I’d go with the former.” But, by changing our perspective to focusing on the positivity of life, we can actually enjoy life much more than what we are expected to enjoy. College mess has tasteless food? It’s OK, your teachers are so good you’d skip meals anytime to listen to their lectures. Hate studying maths? It’s OK, you are much more privileged than many other Indians your age to actually get to study maths. My blog boring you? It’s OK, just ask and I’ll show you more interesting ones, heck, I’d even let you write on my blog! No, seriously. Buzz me if you want to do so! I’m getting lazy…

Leaving that aside, what I want to say, is that there are way too many things going in your favour that those going unfavourably. So don’t worry, be happy! Thinking that nothing good is happening in your life is a deadly thought, and it should be “killed” quickly. Besides, you’re completely wrong when you think nothing’s going right! Wanna bet? I would, because I’d always win the bet! :D

2) Faith:

“Belief is a beautiful armour, but it makes for the heaviest sword.” - John Mayer

Yeah, the many faces of one of the greatest modern philosopers...

Words of wisdom (or song lyrics) apart, faith is something I’d just like to call, THE ABSENCE OF DOUBT. Jesus said that all you’d need is faith as tiny as a mustard seed. I used to think that Jesus just simply meant it as a “baseless metaphor”, but now I realise that many of us actually don’t really have that much faith (and I totally went against 2 Timothy 3:16, but we’ll reserve that for another time, shall we? Maybe for a post entitled “The 3 (zillion) mistakes of my life”…hope ChetanBhagat could write that and guest post it for me)! Well, we need faith in our life. We need to believe that things will work out. We need to be sure of things even when everyone else is unsure. A great philosopher, whose name just slipped my mind (more like, completely slipped my mind! Or maybe, never even entered my mind…) said “If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.” Just a teensy weensy bit of faith can take you much further than all your talent, ability, skill, knowledge…in essence, faith can take you much further than you can go.

So, that’s pretty much all I can say about positive thinking (not really, I’ve been asked to shorten my writing, so I’d rather stop). I really enjoyed wrestling with my mind to write this, and I hope this inspires at least one out of the four people who actually read this blog (Fun Fact: All four of them were blackmailed into reading my blog posts!). So, keep smiling, and think positively!

“You can do!” – My Chemistry teacher. The philosopher who considered life similar to a carbon compound.  How? Don't ask me. ;)