Stumbled across this article HERE. A ZEN MASTER EXPLAINS WHY POSITIVE THINKING IS TERRIBLE ADVICE.
Ok, I don't completely disagree. Not completely. Positive thinking has it's place. You can look at the bright side of a situation, and find the positives to help you create a better outcome, and happiness, or you can dwell on the negatives, and find misery. Positive thinking can help you through some rough times. When you're penniless, and struggling, dwelling on the negatives of your situation, instead of focusing on a more positive long-term goal only serves to make you more miserable, and odds are less motivated.
Where positive thinking fails though is when you dilute the reality of you. Of course, the same can be said about negative thinking, which in my experience, in self-reflection, more people tend toward seeing the negatives, and the flaws as being more significant than they are, and missing the positives, or ignoring them completely.
Growth as an individual, as this article does point out, is stunted when the truth cannot be had, and self-reflection is not performed with brutal honesty. Everyone has their flaws. Everyone has areas where more practice, and learning is needed. Everyone has things that they're just not cut out to do in life. Conversely, everyone also has aptitudes, and skills. Everyone has positive points of their physical being, spiritual self, and personality. Those positives need to be seen as the cornerstone, and building blocks of personal growth, but they should never blind a person from seeing, and expressing their shortcomings, or areas where work needs to be applied, with honesty. Same with the negative. It's a good thing to acknowledge those places where you're not so great, but never let them consume you, and take away from all the good that exists within you, your value, or all the positives you create in the world around you.
Likewise, for positive, and negative emotions. If you can't experience, and express the negative, you dilute the positives. People want to live in a state of bliss. That is unreasonable on this plane of existence. We exist in a rich tapestry of emotions, bound to our humanity through a consciousness of self, and a consciousness of the world around us. To attempt existing in nothing but positive emotions serves to create a vanilla existence of bland complacency.
Pain must be felt. Sadness must be expressed. Allow yourself a good, hard cry, and then laugh a little harder, too. This builds a life rich with experiences, and memories.
Our time here is short, so live while you're alive.
The positives, and negatives must be honestly dealt with in all aspects of our lives. If they're not, true growth, happiness, and success becomes more difficult to achieve.