The Powerless of Positive Thinking

Some people believe -- or would like to believe -- that to "achieve" the optimal life that they envision is simply a matter of thinking correctly. In other words, they figure that it's all about how you think. If you think positively, you'll ultimately experience positive results; and the same goes for the opposite.

This is true.

However, it's not the whole picture -- and this is where the problem lies for many, many people.

Let's start with the true part. Yes, if you allow yourself to value the positive in a situation, a person, an event or some other aspect of life, then that is most certainly a very intelligent way to live. It allows you to identify possibilities and be open to change in ways that people who are obsessively negative simply can't.

So far, so good.

But the "problem" with positive thinking, is that it's still thinking and that means that it requires mind -- and peace cannot, does not, and never will come exclusively through the mind.

Have you ever been in a "zone"? When you were so deeply immersed in an activity (perhaps a sport, or a hobby, or something that you really love doing), that you were there, the activity was there...but your mind wasn't there? It's not that you were "stupid" -- in fact, you were performing at the peak of intelligence. There was an inner harmony and clarity that aligned itself with reality -- you were one with reality.

That's because there was no narrative, thought-obsessed mind getting in the way of you and reality.

Yes, use your mind -- it's a tool. But don't be used by it. Positive thinking is valuable only when you need to think. But when you don't need to think: DON'T THINK.

Meditation is nothing more than the process of alertly experiencing reality without thoughts; of doing it with awareness. We experience this level of no-thought in deep sleep, but we aren't conscious -- we aren't alert. To experience this state of being while alert -- to simply co-exist with the absolute vastness of inner space -- is meditation, and it is the best compliment to positive thinking that there is.

So yes, think positively. Focus on solutions and harmony. Look for points of agreement. Do all of that -- it will brighten your life and those around you. But -- don't think when you don't have to.

And believe it or not, most of the time, you don't have to.

Are You Open for Business?

Imagine you wanted to open a store -- any kind of store. If you like coffee, make it a coffee shop. Or, if you like basketball shoes, open one of those shops. Or art, or books, or a anything -- as long as it fits into a store, imagine that you can open it.

And now imagine that you spend all kinds of time, effort and money getting your store ready for business. You buy inventory, hire staff, get everything all set up. And you dream passionately of the day when, at last, you can start to experience the life of a store owner.

Now, on the first day of business...there isn't any. No customers. Nothing.

"That's okay," you tell yourself. "All businesses start out quiet like this...it'll be better tomorrow."

But it's not. Tomorrow is just as bad as yesterday. And next week is just as bad as last week.

In fact, a whole month goes by and you don't have a single customer. Not even an accidental customer; not even some guy asking to use your phone, or for directions to the airport, or anything.

In fact, you might as well not be open at all.

And you know what? Turns out that you aren't.

To your sheer amazement -- your shock and perhaps even horror -- you come to realize that despite all of your efforts: your time, your money, your passion -- you never opened your business to the customers that you so desperately wanted.

Your door was locked.

Your big sign on the door said "OPENING SOON"

In short: you weren't open for business. And so regardless of your best efforts -- your best intent and your best aim -- you were doomed to "fail" from the start. You did not give yourself the chance to succeed.

For an unusual number of people, self-help is a lot like this sad little story. Many people read book after book (or blog after blog:), attend workshops or retreats, perhaps do some meditation or something else that is in alignment with the whole self-help path, and yet despite it all, they don't experience the qualitative shift in consciousness that they expected -- that they hoped for.

Why not? Because, in so many cases, people just aren't open for business. They are unwilling to truly open up themselves to the NEW -- to the CHANGE that is going to take place on their path.

For many people, change is the most terrifying thing in life. And so to avoid that terror, they stay closed -- they cling to the past, to what they think they know to be true of reality, and as a result of that clinging, of that "closed"-ness, they simply don't let the world change through them.

Again, these people aren't open for business. They aren't inviting reality -- the present moment -- to live in them. They aren't opening the door to new possibilities, to seeing things differently, to responding in new ways to old, repeated situations.

They aren't open for business.

As you travel on the self-help path, ask yourself on a regular basis: am I open for business?

Because "being open" is a fundamental requirement of growth.