A Brazilian shaman reveals the dark side of positive thinking…
Have you ever been told you just need to “think positive” and your problems will go away? Or that to achieve what you want in your life, all you need to do is visualize it and it will end up appearing?
It’s an approach to life that’s been popular for decades thanks to books like Think and
Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
But does it really help us to live more meaningful and fulfilling lives?
Not exactly, according to this Brazilian shaman initiated in the traditions of the Amazon
Rainforest. In an article originally published in the Huffington Post, Rudá landé reveals the dark side of positive thinking.
Thousands of books, workshops and self-help gurus repeat the same mantra: “Change
your thoughts, change your life.” If only the mythical “law of attraction” worked for even
half the people who tried it! We’d need a bigger Hollywood for all the positive thinking
stars, thousands of new private islands for the positive thinking millionaires, and entire
industries propped up by the success of positive thinking CEOs. There wouldn’t be
enough resources on the planet to fulfill the dreams of a new generation of magicians in
possession of “The Secret.”
Positive thinking is like the New Age version of believing in Santa Claus. All you have to
do is make a list of what you want, imagine that it’s on its way, and then sit and wait for
the universe to deliver it to your doorstep. Positive thinking claims to give you the keys
to manifest your desired future by imagining that it’s already arrived. By doing that, you
attract whatever you want from the universal matrix. Stay 100% positive for long
enough, and your new reality will simply materialize from your thoughts.
There are just two problems here: 1) it’s exhausting, and 2) it’s ineffective.
Positive thinking teaches you to ignore your true feelings.
What positive thinking actually does is teach you how to hypnotize yourself into ignoring
your true feelings. It creates a kind of tunnel vision. You begin to lock your
consciousness into a bubble in which you exist only as your “higher self,” always
smiling, full of love and happiness, magnetic and unstoppable. Living inside this bubble
might feel good in the short-term, but in time the bubble will burst. That’s because every
time you force yourself to be positive, negativity grows within. You can deny or repress the negative thoughts and emotions, but they don’t go away.
Life is full of challenges, and facing these challenges every day triggers all kinds of
thoughts and emotions, including anger, sadness and fear. Trying to avoid what you
consider negative and sticking only with the positive can be a huge mistake. When you deny your true feelings, you’re telling a part of yourself, “You’re bad.” You build a wall in the mind and your psyche becomes split.
When you draw the line between what’s acceptable within yourself and what’s not, fifty percent of who you are is being rejected. You’re constantly running away from your shadow. It’s an exhausting journey that leads to sickness, depression and anxiety.
We try so hard to be happy, and the harder we try, the more frustrated we become.
Frustration plus exhaustion is a formula for depression. People become frustrated
because they can’t meet the archetype of success they’ve been sold by Hollywood.
People become frustrated because they can’t meet the archetype of success they’ve been sold by Hollywood. They’re exhausted from fighting against their real selves, and they’re depressed because they’re not aligned with their true nature
You can spend your life engaged in a civil war with yourself. The other approach is to learn professional guided hypnosis. Through this process, you will learn to balance your thoughts and emotions, and in turn, gain positivity naturally. See how to turn what you feel stuck in to success. True positivity is possible.