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Can positive thinking be actually harmful?

Writer's picture: Yoga with DoraYoga with Dora

Updated: Aug 6, 2024

Hi, my name is Dora Longman, and I am a pessimist. I have been clean for 2 weeks and 2 days now. I always wanted to join the crowd on the glass is half full side, and let me tell you that life is just amazing on the other side.


It took me a while to get here. I have been practising yoga for 10 years. I have been to all kinds of holistic treatments and therapy. Every breath spent on the mat and every session with a professional guided me towards the all time wish: to be HAPPY! Isn't that what we all want?


What are the things I have tried to come out on the other side?


Exercise. Obviously. Buckets of it. My finding on exercise is: move every day until you sweat. Practice yoga at least once a week (preferable more) to be able to move in a way that makes you sweat.


Eat healthy. Obviously. This was a biggie for me when my not so helping mantra was 'the only fun in my life is eating cakes'. Nope. It was definitely a moment on the lips, days of misery in the mind (not to mention the hips...). 2020 was the year when I managed to tackle this, lovely clean eating, pescatarian diet, eating for energy rather than enjoyment.


Meditate. May not be so obvious. With daily practice I managed to still my mind, and notice what's going on in there. Of course what I found that was a lot of negative chatter.


I tried many more things like therapy, kinesiology, hypnotherapy, Bach flower therapy, Theata healing, reading, and they all helped a bit for sure!

Let's get to the topic of this blog post now: Positive thinking!


Here we go:' think positive', 'say positive things', 'it's all in the head', 'you can change your mind', 'everything happens for a reason' bla bla bla. I did what I was told. The result: just felt more and more miserable. Why? Because when you think/talk positive but you are actually feeling negative about what you say, there is a disharmony. Not what we are going for, I am guessing. On the other hand when you think/talk positive and that also gives you a positive feeling, bingo, your feel happy. You have arrived. The biggest aha moment for me from Jennifer Baileys: Love Your Life with Law of Attraction podcast was the following:


Just think a better feeling thought. Not one that you are supposed to say, but one that feels good! That is a game changer for me. Cause to be honest, I was really feeling nauseous when I would tell people about something that I perceived as a trauma in my life and they would say 'everything happens for a reason'. Let me tell you, that my thoughts and feelings were the opposite of good upon hearing that.

If you like my rumbling, you would love this episode from Jennifer's podcast: Saying positive things when you don't feel positive (episode #73 - Saying positive things when you don't feel positive)


For example:


One more positive FEELING at a time we will get there

Namaste

Dora

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