Scare Stories: Thinking Positive Makes You Feel Terrible

THE Ultimate Media Scare Story goes something like this:

“REPEATING positive statements such as ‘I am a lovable person’ or ‘I will succeed’ makes some people feel worse about themselves instead of raising their self-esteem, a study says.”

That’s right – thinking positive thoughts makes life worse for you.

According to psychologists Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick:

“From at least as far back as Norman Vincent Peale’s (1952) The Power of Positive Thinking, the media have advocated saying favourable things to oneself.”

This would be the same media that every days publishes stories designed to scare and spread anxiety.

Says Dr Wood:

“I think that what happens is that when a low self-esteem person repeats positive thoughts, they probably have contradictory thoughts.”

Good is bad. Bad is good. You see?

“So, if they’re saying ‘I’m a lovable person,’ they might be thinking, ‘Well, I’m not always lovable’ or ‘I’m not lovable in this way,’ and these contradictory thoughts may overwhelm the positive thoughts.”

Might. May. Words to look out for in any scientific results…

Anorak

Posted: 4th, July 2009 | In: Media, Scare Stories Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink