Food for Thought

So by this point, you should all be convinced either that positivity is an awesome thing or that I'm completely nuts for trying to find the silver lining in every situation. But what is really the benefit to thinking positively? So far, the only support I've offered for the idea has been pretty weak. "Think positively and you'll love homework and getting rained on and depriving yourself of things you love for forty days at a stretch!" I claim. You, rightly, may be putting your foot down and asking, "But why?"

Truthfully, after a while I started wondering myself why I was so dedicated to the idea of positivity. Sure, it keeps you from groaning about an upsetting situation and might make you feel like the whole world's made of rainbows and butterflies, but so what? In order to gain a better perspective on the benefits of thinking positively, I decided to read the book The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (a condensed version is available for free here if anyone is interested in checking it out).

So this week let's explore some of the arguments in favor of taking on a positive mindset in life. Why think positively? According to this book, in a survey of 600 college students, a low confidence level was the top-listed personal problem. Low self-confidence generally results from having a negative view of the world and your place in it; in other words, we think we are worthless and the world is pitted against us, and therefore we don't have much confidence in our abilities. In order to restore confidence in ourselves, we have to change the way we view the world.

You may wonder why it matters how we view the world when circumstances are either going to be for you or against you no matter how you look at them. Dr. Karl Menninger, a famous psychiatrist quoted in The Power of Positive Thinking, made the point that "Attitudes are more important than facts." Basically, even if the world really is against you (which it probably isn't) the important thing is still how you control your attitudes about the situation - not the facts of the situation itself.

Okay, so a doctor backed up my reasoning behind thinking positively. Everyone's clear now on the fact that thinking positively is indeed the best option when presented with an unfavorable situation. But why bother making positive thinking a focal point of your life? For one thing, having a positive outlook can fill you with life and energy. The Power of Positive Thinking contains many personal stories and testimonies of people who, through their positive outlook on life, persevered through speaking engagement after speaking engagement or pitched whole baseball games in 100 degree weather without losing morale. Peale makes the point, "The life of strain is difficult. The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence." Living life with a positive outlook is the simplest and happiest way to live.

Another benefit of positive thinking mentioned in the book is that it can actually improve your physical health. Emerging scientific studies have shown that having a positive attitude is linked to having lower levels of stress hormones and inflammation, leading to a more highly functioning immune system. It's long been said that laughter is the best medicine, but it's rapidly becoming clear that even just looking on the bright side of things can really improve your physical health.

So in the end, the tradeoff is this: find the silver lining even when it's hard in order to live an easy and happy life and enjoy good physical and emotional health. Sometimes you have to resist the human urge to wallow in self-pity and instead find the good in a situation. This is potentially a very rewarding exercise. But is it worth it?