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Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work

December 3, 2009 by Steve

When I meet someone new at a networking event for the first time we eventually get onto the topic of personal growth. It seems logical that we would, but for some reason there is this mainstream idea that personal growth is about positive thinking. If you think positive thoughts and focus on the good things in life, good things will happen. That’s where I draw the line because positive thinking doesn’t work.

Positive thinking doesn’t work unless it’s associated with positive feeling.  I’ve written about this before and my experience with affirmations in T Harv Eker’s book The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

Harv emphasizes the application of declarations throughout his book.  These are basically affirmations that are said out loud. What I realized after practicing these declarations for 6 months is that positive thinking does not work.  It only works when it’s associated with positive feeling.

Positive Thinking Must Be Associated with Positive Feeling

The reason I say that is because most of your behavior is associated with your subconscious mind.  These deeper layers control the way you behave and the way you trigger a change in those layers is with strong feelings.

Think of your subconscious mind as a feeling machine.  If you want to change the implants already growing in your head like those limiting beliefs or mental blocks then start working with the way you feel.

Even the NLP based fear phobia cure that I use works with feelings - only it does this in reverse.  Instead of adding feeling to your experience it takes the negative feeling away (along with all those scary skeletons that may come with it).  You can learn more about eliminating fear by reading: 3 Things You MUST Know to Overcome Fear

Feelings are a conduit to change.  If you want to see change at a deeper level you’ve got to work with your feelings.  There is this invisible force when we associate positive feelings to the things we want and negative feelings to things we don’t want.

So here’s my suggestion. Do not waste your time using positive thinking techniques, unless of course they also change the way you feel.  There is some trial and error here, but find out what works best for you.

If I had to go back and talk to the younger less experienced version of myself about positive thinking, here is what I’d say, “Make sure to do what you love.  When you’re honest with yourself and everyone else all the other things in life just seem to work themselves out.”


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19 Comments so far

  1. Ideas With A KickNo Gravatar on December 3, 2009 9:43 am

    Hey Steve,

    I think positive thinking is overrated. When you decide if to go driving on a slippery mountain road, after 10 shots of vodka, the last think you need is to think positive. I believe most of the time, rational thinking is the way to go. Thanks for lighting the fire on this topic :)

    Eduard

  2. PeteNo Gravatar on December 3, 2009 10:35 am

    Hi Steve, your’e right about things not working without positive feelings, the thing is, it seems easy enough to keep up the day to day positive thoughts but it’s less easy to maintain the feeling - for me anyway. I think we all need some sort of positive feedback mechanism and for me it’s very fleeting. I can feel really good for a while after I have played some of my own music on my guitar but it has nothing to do with my day job so after a while stuck in the drudgery I get pulled back down.

  3. SteveNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 10:35 am

    @ Pete,

    Well maybe your day job is the problem?

    It seems that we spend at least 33% of our lives in a job or in some sort of vocation. Some of us in a job that we don’t even like or enjoy. That doesn’t seem right. We go to a job that we don’t enjoy and expect something will change. That doesn’t make sense to me.

    What do you think?

  4. Suzanne FinderNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 1:26 pm

    It’s really no wonder positive affirmations aren’t very effective when you consider the latest neuroscience research.

    They are finding that as much as 99% of our thought process is at the conscious level. Only 1% to 6% of our cognitive process is at the level of our awareness - and that’s what’s really running the show.

    I heard some stats that in order for affirmations to be effective they must be repeated every day, 3 times per day for 90 days. I’m not sure I know one person who could actually sustain that. I certainly couldn’t!

    I use a very effective process called PSYCH-K with clients (and myself) that gets solid results by going directly to the subconscious (habitual thought patterns). It incorporates parts of NLP, Brain Gym and a few other modalities. We get shifts quickly, easily and they last.

    Thanks for opening up this topic!

  5. Suzanne FinderNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 1:29 pm

    Woops!

    I meant to say “as much as 99% of our thought process is at the SUBconscious level.

    Sorry about that!!

  6. Sharon Riegie MaynardNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 3:53 pm

    having worked for over 20 years in the unseen realms called ‘energy’, I can tell you that positive thinking and positive emotions are so the tip of the greater iceberg we call manifestation/creation.
    Until we go deeper, further upstream in the universal truths and our history, we will continue moving deck chairs around on the Titanic that is still going under.
    Positive thought, positive emotions are enough for a hand-full of people, and not nearly enough for most of humanity.
    Use those first and then go deeper…

  7. PaulNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 6:11 pm

    Feelings come from experiences… to be more exact, they come from the meaning we attach to experiences. And feelings are the drivers of our behaviors, indeed. The first signs/manifestations of our deep experience show up in our physiology… a reason why so many go to addictive substances to change (temporarily) their physiology to help them “feel” better. Bad prescription for lasting transformation. Affirmations can work, but as Suzanne said above, they are small chunks in a large and long process. Creating new experiences that create new feelings is probably the quickest way to get that change crystallized.

  8. ken at FreeTGRbook.comNo Gravatar on December 4, 2009 6:15 pm

    Hi Steve I think what wrong with you by saying this until I opened up the remaining part of this message. You are talking about the law of feelings. some person will corect me on this name I am sure. We feel love inside us for each other. The biggest question I use to ask where does this strong feeling come from. Then I found out that god is love. How true.

  9. Suzanne FinderNo Gravatar on December 5, 2009 5:11 am

    Clarification - sorry all! I inadvertently hit the “submit” button in the midst of editing my initial comment and wasn’t able to go back…

    Research shows that 95-99% our cognitive process occurs at a subconscious level (habitual patterns, etc.) leaving 5% or less occurring at a level of conscious awareness. Basically, folks, we’re on autopilot most of the time and we don’t even know it.

    The ramifications are pretty staggering! We think we’re thinking through problems and making conscious choices, but really our neurological patterns (aka beliefs) are calling the shots. And that’s ok as long as our patterns/beliefs are supportive of our goals, dreams and desires. It’s when we get stuck in unsupportive patterns that we struggle.

    Biologically speaking, feelings are generated by chemicals released in the brain in response to an experience (stimulus).

    I agree, we each give our experiences meaning, which in turn generates feelings (chemical signals throughout our body).

    From the time we’re in utero up until the age of 6 - 8 (research varies) we are unable to discern the veracity of messages coming in — we take in everything as “true.” These messages are transmitted chemically throughout the body and in turn our cells develop receptor sites to receive like chemical impulses in the future.

    Our biological process gives shape to our emotional make up — which creates the “internal lens” through which we experience the world — and from which we generate meanings and feelings.

    Affirmations (which we perform at a conscious level) don’t stand a chance when battling for position against longstanding neurological patterning (at the subconscious level), unless there is an intervention that directly addresses the underlying biological structure.

    I don’t believe the change process has to be long and drawn out or even difficult. I have seen major and enduring shifts happen both emotionally and physically over a period of hours, days and weeks vs. months and years as with traditionally psychotherapy or even coaching. I’m not knocking either, they are both exceptionally valuable, but not in the context of fast and effective pattern change.

    Two great resources on this topic are: “The Biology of Belief” by Bruce Lipton (cellular biologist and former Stanford School of Medicine professor) and “PSYCH-K® The Missing (Piece) Peace” by Rob Williams.

  10. SteveNo Gravatar on December 5, 2009 3:16 pm

    Hi Suzanne,

    Bruce Lipton’s book, The Biology of Belief is a great resource for anyone who wants to study the effects the environment has on our beliefs and the way we think at the cellular level. I strongly recommend it.

  11. Eric WhalleyNo Gravatar on December 5, 2009 7:42 pm

    “Make sure to do what you love. When you’re honest with yourself and everyone else all the other things in life just seem to work themselves out.”

    I think that’s one of the main impetus’ to living a fulfilling life. Pete and Steve exemplify this with their comments.

    Suzanne, Thank you for sharing that information with everyone. In my previous neuroscience research I found that the mind is such a powerful tool that can be used both for good AND evil, depending on what is inside it and how you use it.

    There is so much research showing that our perceptions of life are massively underpinned by biological processes that we have little realisation or awareness of, hence SUBconscious.

  12. Niall HarbisonNo Gravatar on December 6, 2009 6:51 pm

    Positive thinking is important but one thing that gets me going is fear. If you are really scared of failing you are sort of forced to think positive and it will eventually get you achieving rsults in super fast time :)

  13. Mike BlackstoneNo Gravatar on December 7, 2009 1:12 pm

    Everyone who has mentioned the power of the unconscious mind is right on target.

    Jill Bolte Taylor, in her book “A Stroke of Insight,” has identified the uncounscious mind as equivalent to the right hemisphere (most brain scientists now say the right hemisphere supplies emotional content—feelings—thoughts and speech coming from the left hemisphere) of the brain. That fits with my 21 years coaching experience.

    What works for me is making a committed decision (a left hemisphere activity) for myself (first—before I have any real idea how I am going to pull it off), then coming up with a single first step, and then surrendering the rest of the unfolding of that committed decision to my right hemisphere (shades of 6-step reframing).

  14. Diana LevintonNo Gravatar on December 7, 2009 2:18 pm

    Hi Steve et al!
    Positive thinking works…for those who lead seminars, workshops or even produce movies such as “What the Bleep…” and -more recently- “The Secret”. As long as there are people anxious to buy “fast learning”, miracle solutions and so forth, the ones selling those “miracles” will have a clientele. Reading that Dr. Lipton, for example, is “an internationally recognized authority in bridging science and spirit” triggers in me the question “Recognized by whom?” ¿Peer scientists? Hardly.
    What is it that makes us long for bridging those two realms? Why not link hair dying with art? Electricity with happiness?
    Positive thinking is related to neurotransmitters… and that is all we know so far. The rest is literature, not science.
    May be if we start thinking in terms of what we already have, acknowledge it and look around to see ways to give and share, instead of craving for ways in which to be wealthier, more successful (?) and so forth, we would discover that there is a world beyond our belly buttons and stop staring admiringly at it.
    Diana

  15. Eric WhalleyNo Gravatar on December 7, 2009 5:40 pm

    Dianne,

    Spot on!! Its our craving for “perfection” and the “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” mindset that keeps us from realising what we already have and have achieved. Its something Im only just beginning to come to terms with myself.

  16. Douglas EbyNo Gravatar on December 9, 2009 4:31 pm

    Hale Dwoskin (author of The Sedona Method) agrees: “Positive thinking takes an immense amount of effort and, for most people, it doesn’t even work! It only covers the negative thoughts with positive ones and can still leave you crying on the inside.”

    From my post Hale Dwoskin on why “Positive Thinking” fails to build lasting personal growth.
    http://talentdevelop.com/462/

  17. How to Use the Law of Attraction to Achieve Your Dreams | Learn the Power of Your Subconscious Mind on June 6, 2010 10:00 am

    […] Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work - {16} […]

  18. Pete PrzyszlakNo Gravatar on July 4, 2010 6:10 pm

    Strange that this comment should suddenly re-appear from “TheMindMedic” when it is word for word Identical to a reply from Steve to one of my earlier comments in December last year, what’s going on?
    Anyway, relating to the initial statement it’s right about linking your thinking with feeling, you can choose to think positive as you can choose to feel positive, you can do it! try listening to Louise L Hay or Bob Proctor and actually practice consistently what they suggest. I think processes like NLP or Cybernetic Transposition work in the same way but are just to complicated. It’s much simpler to take the path like Buddha and just be Mindful and live in the present. If you can feel good now, you can feel good tomorrow.

  19. SteveNo Gravatar on July 4, 2010 8:16 pm

    Hey Pete P,

    I saw the comment you were referring to and deleted it. Thanks for pointing this out to me. It’s very much appreciated :)

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