Seems to always be one way or the other,
doesn’t it? Positive or negative, paper or plastic… Dr. Kinsey said something
to the effect of humans will always be inclined to lean more heavily in one
direction, But a person is never entirely, 100% on wither side of the spectrum.
He was talking about sexuality, but the
statement applies to other aspects of human inclination. For instance, positive
or negative thinking, which do you prefer.
As you guessed I favor positive thoughts and
intentions.
Lets examine some of the pros and cons of
negative thought. Negatively focused thought lends credibility to ‘everything
will go wrong’, people are inherently bad,
don’t trust anyone, and people will always let you down.
There are more examples but this is enough to
get the main definition across the table; negative thinking highlights any
fear, loathing, distrust or general negative formation a person has.
The benefits are that you can plan for if the
scenario goes sour on you. However the imagined scenarios almost never go down
in the same way imagined.
The inexactitude often makes the projection
useless. The negative deductions are usually based off emotion opposed to fact,
so they will always be specialized to the perspective not the situation.
“The optimist proclaims that we live in the
best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.” James
Branch Cabell
Cabell’s quote fantastically highlights the
fact that positive thought and negative thought are directly connected, they are
the sides to a coin. Rational thought and receptive perception is the the side
of the coin following the circumference of the coin, despite our best efforts
we normally only touch it for a moment when the disk is flipped. Both major
perspectives are so heavily rooted in emotions that they frequently overlook
facts, and are there for normally wrong.
If you are only going to be partially right,
why not be positive?
The perceptions gleaned in this way are going to be off wither way. The positive
assumptions though will be the better of the options. To be clear, I’m not
saying to stop using your common sense.
You should always be striving to make the
most objective and rational decisions, that take into account your ‘gut
feelings’ and your intuition. That isn’t always an option though and frequently
have to make due with what we got.
That positivity will spread to others as
well, so its beneficial and conducive to group situations. As you can’t be sure
what your neighbor is thinking its safe to cover your bases and try to be as
empathetic and supporting as you can until you find out more details.
