Positivity and Positive Thinking Are Not the Same
This is massively important to understanding empowerment.
It is very easy to confuse positivity with positive thinking. They are not, however, at all the same.
Positive thinking is, frankly, one-dimensional. It is thought and thought alone, and lacking all other elements of conscious awareness.
Why does that matter? Because to practice mindfulness, and make any real use of positivity, you need to include more than just thought. You need feeling, intent, approach, and action, too.
What’s more, a great deal of toxic positivity comes from the idea of positive thinking being the end all be all. Since it’s only a single element of positivity, it can’t be.
Why does more go into positivity than just thought? Because thought alone cannot empower you.
Positivity vs toxic positivity
One of the key elements of positivity is that it can be an incredible tool for empowerment.
Empowerment comes from within. No matter what anyone else offers or sells you, they cannot empower you. You, and only you, can empower you.
How you empower yourself begins with active conscious awareness. Mindfulness. To be mindful, you need to know what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, your intent, if your approach is positive or negative, and ultimately your actions from there.
A positive approach involves the angles you employ in your daily life. If you are using positivity, you’re open to potential and possibility. Negativity means you’re closed off and probably seeing lack, limitation, and the like. A negative approach is not empowering.
The only positivity you can use in mindfulness is genuine positivity. Toxic positivity is disempowering because it’s utterly unrealistic. That’s how positive thinking often gets mistaken for true positivity.
What is toxic positivity? It’s the idea of holding only positive thoughts and a positive attitude by ignoring all negativity. It’s the equivalent of walking around in life wearing rose-colored glasses and utterly ignoring all else happening in the world.
The truth is, however, that shit happens. Negative things can, will, and do happen to everyone. They can’t be ignored, avoided, or disregarded because they are part of the life experience. Additionally, new ventures, fresh ideas, and choices and decisions for change often are born via negative happenings.
Thus, genuine positivity recognizes and acknowledges negativity. It also opens the way for you to make new choices and decisions to empower and better your life.
Positive thinking can’t stand alone
Thought in and of itself has no power. How many ideas have come into being but gained no traction because they never advanced past just being an idea?
Thought must be given feeling. Without feeling, thought is fleeting. Feeling is like putting the battery into the device so that it works.
Then you need intent. Intent is all about what the thought, coupled with feeling, is meant to do. This is the equivalent of turning the key or pushing the button to get it started.
Approach matters because the outcome will often be impacted if you see what you’re doing as impossible or from a place of lack and scarcity – rather than possible and from a place of abundance. Have you ever had to do something you expected to suck, to be not at all fun, and it wasn’t? Conversely, have you ever had to do something you expected to rock, to be amazing, and it was? That’s what approach is and the impact it can have.
Last but not least, it all comes down to action. You had the idea, gave it power, had a reason for it, and chose an approach – now you do it. Start typing, put ink on the canvas, ask that person out, drive the car – just act.
Positive thinking by itself is nothing. What it can lead to, however, can’t stand alone nor disregard negativity. However, it can utterly empower you.
You can’t ignore the bad stuff
Positive thinking is frequently the root of toxic positivity. That’s because it’s often associated with the idea that positive thinking, all by itself, removes negativity from the world.
The truth is that it can’t. The bad stuff is going to happen. Relationships end, jobs are lost, fascists con people into electing them, people die, and so on and so forth. Bad stuff can, will, and does happen, no matter what you do.
Why? Because change is the one and only constant in the Universe, and you have nearly ZERO control over any of it. Positive thinking doesn’t alter that.
However, positive thinking does open you to potential, possibility, and abundance. This, in turn, empowers you, and you can make choices and decisions for you and your life to be who, what, where, how, and why you desire to be.
Positivity and positive thinking are tools that can help you live your life every day. What you do with them, or not, is up to you. It is wholly your choices and decisions to use positivity for empowerment and experience what that can do for you.
Recognizing the difference between positivity and positive thinking isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that positive thinking in and of itself can do very little, you can add feeling, intent, approach, and action to choose positivity in what you do. Knowing that this is a key element of mindfulness and choosing who, what, where, how, and why to be, you can use this to continually better your life experience.
This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you are of yourself here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you for their empowerment.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the five-hundred-and-sixty-fourth (564) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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