The Power of Positive Feeling

The idea of positive thinking has been around for a long time, and in "popular culture" for well over a few decades. And yet, however, many people find that positive thinking is not...well, it's not working.

It's not that people are incessantly negative. It's that positive thinking takes effort; it's kind of like keeping a constant eye on something or someone. As long as you're paying attention, it's fine. But forget for a moment -- slip into unawareness or unconsciousness -- and all can be lost.

This in itself -- losing consciousness or awareness -- is not a problem, really; it's that if you are a "positive thinker" and identify as such, you will certainly start to feel ashamed and guilty when you aren't thinking positively.

In other words, a chronically miserable person doesn't worry at all if they're being miserable; it's just how they are. But someone who is "committed" to positive thinking is surely going to feel weak, flawed, incapable, and very upset with him or herself if that positive thinking falls below a certain expectation.

Ironically, the "peak" of positive thinking can descend into the "valley" of self-condemnation; people can start berating themselves for not being positive enough. And that leads to more misery. It's a vicious cycle, and one that many, many positive thinking people fall into over and over. Their intentions are wonderful; but their method has some challenges.

The thing is, positive thinking is not possible. Thinking is language; without language, there is no thinking. And language is always dualistic by nature -- it has to be. "Happy" in itself has no intrinsic meaning, unless you also understand "sad." "Success" means nothing to someone unless that person also understands "failure." And because of this dualism, a positive thinking person is, on a very very very subtle level, also a negative thinking person; because you cannot simply "think positive" and nothing else. Language has two wings: the positive definition of something and its antonym; it's opposite.

So what is possible? Positive feeling.

Your heart is not dualistic; it doesn't need language to communicate. It simply is -- authentic, pure, trusting. When you move the energy from your head (thinking) to your heart (feeling), you give momentum to the intrinsic non-language of your heart, which is feeling.

At first, it will seem strange -- so take small steps. Bring more power to your heart, and start to grasp to integrity that comes from positive feeling; and by "positive" I don't mean GOOD, I mean real.

In the language of spirituality, what is REAL is good.