The Antidote: The Negative Effects of Positive Thinking

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2 years ago

I have recently been reading The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman, a fascinating read about the negative effects of the whole positivity hype that is going on. For decades now the idea has been, if you put your mind to it you can achieve anything you want. Burkeman shows that this is not the reality and that actually thinking like that can make you feel worse instead of better.

Why Positive Thinking Doesn't Work

According to Burkeman the idea that positive thinking can make you achieve anything can actually make people feel more depressed and down than they were before they started on their path to positive thinking.

Burkeman states that people who start with positive thinking and then don't succeed to become millionaires, the best at their job or whatever it is they want to obtain through positive thinking, become more depressed. How come they are not succeeding while they were promised that positive thinking would work? Are they not positive enough? Not capable of positive thinking?

The Negative Path

Burkeman instead claims to go down the negative path. . His idea is the more we strive for things like happiness, security and confidence the less we achieve them. What does make us happier is to also think about the not so happy things in life, like death and suffering.

This negative path is not one theory or idea, but more a collection of different ideas. In his book Burkeman than goes to explore how different philosphers and cultures around the world include the negative in their daily practices. One of the really cool examples in the book is when he goes to celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico, where people live with and celebrate the dead instead of avoiding it.

The only downside to his book that because the negative path is not one theory it would take a thick book to explain the different aspects of all these theories. But The Antidote is not a thick book, which means Burkeman only skims at the surface of those theories. Nevertheless, it is really worth a read!

Have you read interesting theories lately?

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2 years ago

Comments

Haven't been reading any book lately but he has a point. Sometimes if we expect something we can become disappointed. That's like false hope positivity or something.

Better to think something good will happen within the day or when we are able to think of it and let the universe do it's work. Not expecting anything is the best. We can only hope good things will happen hehe.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Yeah it is an interesting theory that sounds very logical the more you think about it!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

I think he made a point because when person see at hardships of other people and their living standard he then automatically think about contentment and patience that would obviously made him happy.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

I find the book interesting. Anyways, I somehow agree with the writer's point. But as for me, I decided to have a positive thinking not to achieved everything I want through it (just a lil bit), but because I don't want to be surrounded by negative thoughts. I want positive thoughts because I want a happy heart. But we also need negative things in order to appreciate the brighter side even more.

$ 0.01
2 years ago

Yeah I think he's not so much against all positive thinking, but says there should be a balance of the good and the bad, which makes sense to me!

$ 0.00
2 years ago

I don't think negatively or positively. I'm in the middle of the two.

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2 years ago

very nice article

$ 0.00
2 years ago

Thanks so much!

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2 years ago

This is interesting, anyway I would say negativity is part of our life, and the ability to strike a balance between it and positivity matters a lot. There are a lot of times when we think that being positive is enough, that's true but we must always consider the bad side of life because everything about life won't go as planned.

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2 years ago

Very true, the good doesn't go without the bad!

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2 years ago