Positive Thinking

Article: Positive Thinking Sucks - A common question I hear from climbers is: “How can I get rid of my negative thinking?” They believe negative thinking hinders their performance; they would like to replace it with positive thinking. Does negative thinking have to be changed into positive thinking? Or, should we move beyond negative and positive thinking altogether? - What improves awareness? Negative and positive are two aspects of the same reality. They balance each other. If we ignore the negative and enhance the positive then we limit our awareness and understanding of reality. Positive thinking essentially says negative thinking is wrong; it needs to be changed into positive thinking. - Positive thinking can be equated with rearranging the furniture in our minds. We don’t like the furniture in its current arrangement so we switch it around to what we do like. This does nothing for improving mental fitness or awareness. Developing awareness seeks to remove the furniture completely. - The world is made of cycles. We cannot always think positively. Eventually negative thinking will exert itself to bring us back into balance. Don’t push out negative thinking or replace it with positive thinking. Instead, develop awareness by moving beyond negative or positive. We do this by redirecting our attention to the task in the present moment. - Developing awareness requires that we see reality completely, not in a biased, positive or negative manner. Starting from a foundation of developing awareness allows us to take a step back and see both negative and positive aspects of reality. Doing this helps us assess risks better and take appropriate risks. -

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3 Responses to “Positive Thinking”

  1. kira Says:

    January 9th, 2012 at 8:08 am

    Most times, both negative thoughts and positive thoughts are inaccurate. The “affirmations” learned by many folks as an offshoot of the self-esteem movement do not improve your attitude, they set you up to fail. If it is not true that “I can never do hand jams”, it is also true that “I can always do hand jams”. Reality, as Arno points out, is served by creating an accurate statement “I find hand jams difficult” which is then an action item–learn to do them and practice. There will indeed be things you validly cannot do, but fact-check your statements and reassess those negatives over time. Me, I will never be taller, but I might indeed be able to make that move that others dyno if I open my mind to all the possibilities.

  2. Robert Maffei Says:

    January 9th, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    Excellant remarks Kira,

    But I need a little feedback. From what I read from your first book Arno, aren’t we as rock warriors to do our best not to use particular words such as “easy” and “difficult?” Or does that pertain to when we use judgements about general topics such as routes?
    Robby M

  3. Arno Says:

    January 10th, 2012 at 11:03 am

    True Robby. That’s a subtle refinement for what Kira said. a

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