I "hate" positive thinking. No, I don't mean that I hate it when a positive, seemingly reasonable thought occurs to me. What I hate is the whole "just think positive thoughts and all your heartache will go away" message.
Why? Well, I want to be very clear about this. Thinking positive thoughts is, of course, not bad...practically by definition. After all, it's positive. (Yep, I've got that whole grip-on-the-obvious thing goin' for me.) My problem is: I cannot so easily "switch" from a negative thought I'm having to some positive thing I'm supposed to be telling myself. And why is that? Because 99% of the time, the positive thing I'm supposed to be telling myself is not something I can believe. If I'm going to think a (new) positive thought, it has to be something I can believe.
And--why do I have a hard time believing the positive? I think there are a couple reasons: One, so much of my life has been heartbreak, pain, shattered dreams. (To my own ears, this sounds like: one could easily think I'm being melodramatic. But if you know my story, you know I'm not.) Two, I have a hard time having a lot of hope. Again, why is that? Well--revisit reason one. Now, as a result of my Christian faith, I have hope for eternal life. I know that I will go to heaven when I die and that I'll see again my loved ones who are already there. It's the whole between-now-and-then part that I struggle to have hope for.
Yes, I'm aware that I've asked "why" four times in the last 2 paragraphs, but given my life, I think that too is apropos. (P.S. I love saying the word "apropos.")
Having said all that, I do recognize the value of thinking positive things. Thoughts determine attitudes, actions, ultimately destiny. So...what I've come to is: I'll have to do positive thinking me-style. And I'll expound on what I mean by that in a future post.
Thanks for listening!