The Need to be Positive « Development « Psych « Jonathan Spencer's Tales of Ordinary Wisdom

The Need to be Positive

Published on February 15, 2006 at Development

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Positive and negative

I once saw a small part of a star trek episode, in which the ships counsellor is seen saying there are no positive or negative emotions there are just feelings, I wonder if these days we concentrate to often on either being totally positive, constructive and progressive as in some peoples attitudes, ie I have no time for negativity; or we find ourselves overwhelmed by the negative, our health, war, famine and so on, what place should these things have in our lives?

So much of our consumer created society is about being positive, creating positive images, good mouth feel, aroma and ambience that I have begun to hear this mantra “I haven’t any time for negativity. People only want to hear see and say the positive and as the saying goes…”Positive thinking brings me the advantages I desire”. However I feel in my heart that this Neuro Linguistic Programming
and then we find images on the internet like the ones here.

I think this super positivity is actually not good for you, its unbalanced and leaves you vulnerable if you do find yourself open to situations you might not have coping strategies for; it also leaves you in a kind of denial, where negative reaction or behaviour is not allowed, accepted or admitted to.

However we are surrounded by the negative also, we only have to watch the evening news to understand this, images of death and destruction, crime and disorder, war and pestilence haunt the tv screen and haunt our subconscious.

Much negativity also comes from our past and the critical voice that brings us and others down is often the distorted voice of an internalised fantasy parent, who desire to model and control has got out of hand.

Really I feel there must be a balance, we must face our heart of darkness and try to have faith in ourselves and the indomitable spirit that exists within us all. If we are to be constructive it is perhaps the negative things we need to be positive about and vice-versa, the over confident positive needs a the quiet voice of calm or caution to show us the flip side.

To return to the idea of positive or negative feelings there truly are none, all feelings can get distorted, care can be suffocating or anger help fight injustice, love can be blind, whilst pain can motivate us to change.

I am positive there will be some who disagree with this and others who won’t.

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Jonathan has experience in both the nonprofit and business sectors, working in a consultative capacity and as a project manager with PCTs, charities, the arts, trade unions, businesses and individuals in the areas of Information, motivation, direction and communications development. He has helped organisations as diverse as carers charities and magazine publishers to develop strategy, policy and process to make a more efficient infrastructure. One where staff share in the gains of the organisation and the end user, whether client, patient or customer, receives the highest quality service possible. As well as being an expert in applied information technology and communication he is a qualified and experienced counsellor and motivator.