Power of thought

Thought is a dynamic force. It moves. It is infectious. Thought creates. You can work wonders with the power of thought. Through the instrumentality of thought, you acquire creative power. There are nowadays numerous books on though-power. Every thought has a literal value to you in every possible way. The strength of your body, the strength of your min, your success in life and the pleasures you give to others by your company-all depend on the nature and quality of your thoughts.

Thoughts are living things. Every change in thought is accompanied by vibration of its matter. Thought as force needs a special kind of subtle matter in its working. Your mind assumes the form of anything it contemplates. When you think of an object, your mind shapes itself into the form of that object. When you change your thought, your mind also changes its shape. Many modifications continually arise in the mind. Your thoughts rapidly change. Your mind also changes its shape rapidly. Every moment, mind is continually creating hundreds of these thought-forms and continually dispersing them again. It never holds on steadily to one thought-form for some time.

The body is the product of the mind. If you entertain healthy thoughts, you can keep good health. If you hold on to sickly thoughts in the mind, thoughts of diseased tissues, thoughts of weak-nerves, thoughts of improper functioning of organs, you can never expect good health, beauty and harmony. If you hold on vigorous thoughts in the mind, then the physical body also will be vigorous. Evil thoughts of all kinds befoul and infure the mind and, if persisted in, will become veritable diseases and maimings of the mind incurable during the period of life.

Man is created by thought; what a man thinks upon, that he becomes. Think you are strong; strong you become. Think you are weak; the weak you become. Think you are a fool; fool you become. Think you are God; God you become. A man forms his own character, becoming that which he thinks. If you meditate on courage, you shall work courage into your character. If you think nobly, you shall gradually make for yourself a noble character, but if you think basely, a base character will be formed.

Steady perservering thought sets up a definite habit of the mind and that habit manifests itself as quality in the character. The thread of thought is woven into mental and moral qualities and these qualities in their totality from what we call character. You can build your character as surely as a mason can build a wall, working with and through the law. The first step towards a deliberate creation of character lies then in the deliberate choosing of what we will think and then of thinking persistently on the quality chosen. Soon, there will be tendency to evince that quality; a little longer, its exercise will become habitual.

Thought makes character. You spin the thread of though into your destiny. That which man thinks upon in one life, he becomes in another. If the mind dwells continually upon one train of thought, a groove is formed into which the though-force runs automatically and such a habit of thought survives death and since it belongs to the ego, is carried over to the subsequent earth life as a thought tendency and capacity.

Own sentiment, own feelings

Every man has a mental world of his own, his own views, his own sentiments, his own feelings, his own habitual thoughts, his own experience and his own mode of thinking. The essence of the various mental images formed in one particular physical life is being worked out in the mental plane. It constitutes the basis for the next physical life.

Man makes the circumstances of his future life by the effect of his actions upon others. Every action has a past which leads up to it; every action has a future which proceeds from it. An action implies a desire which prompted it and a thought which shaped it. Each act is a link in an endless chain of causes and effects, each effect becoming a cause and each cause having been an effect; and each link in the endless chain is welded out of three components-desire, thought and activity. A desire stimulates a thought; a thought embodies itself in an act.

People of similar thoughts are attracted towards each other. A doctor is drawn towards a doctor. A poet has attraction for another poet. A singer loves another singer. A philosopher like another philosopher. A vagabond like a vagabond. The mind has got a ‘drawing power’. You are continually attracting towards you, from both the seen and the unseen sides of life-forces, thought, influences and conditions most akin to those of your own thoughts and lives. In the realm of thought, people of similar thoughts are attracted to one another. This universal law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or not.

We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought; and the very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thought-forces that are being continually sent or that are continually going out in the form of thought-waves. We are all affected more or less by these though-forces either consciously or unconsciously and in the degree that we are more or less sensitively organised or in the degree we are negative and so are open to outside influences, rather than positive, which thus determine what influences shall enter into the domain of our thoughts and hence into our lives.

Thoughts are your private property and you can regulate them to suit your taste entirely by steadily recognizing you ability to do so. You have entirely in your own hands to determine the order of though you entertain and consequently the order of influences you attract and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstances, unless indeed you choose to be. Carry any kind of thought you please about with you and so long as you retain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea, you will unceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exact and only what corresponds to you own dominant quality of thought.

The Process of thought

The process of thought, if people consider it all, is generally believed to be a purely private matter having a momentary bearing on themselves alone. They are apt to be completely unaware of the complicate ramifications and consequences of even the most seemingly insignificant thoughts formed in their minds

Thought force is the most powerful means of obtaining knowledge. If it is concentrated upon a subject, it will burn its way through any obstacle and solve the problem. If the requisite amount of thought force is brought to bear, there is nothing that is beyond power of human comprehension. So long as we scatter it, thought force is of little use to us, but as soon as we are prepared to take the trouble necessary to harness it, all knowledge is ours. Since thought is our principal power, we must learn to have absolute control of it, so that what we produce is not illusion induced by outside conditions, but true imagination generate by the spirit form within.

We speak of thoughts as being conceived by the mind, but just as both father and mother are necessary in the generation of a child, so also are both idea and mind necessary before a thought can be conceived. Ideas are generated by a human ego in the spirit-substance of the inner worlds. This idea is projected upon the receptive mind, giving birth to a thought. Thus when each idea clothes itself in a form made of mind-stuff, it is then a thought, as visible to the inner vision of a sufficiently developed clairvoyant as a child is to its parent. Thus we see that ideas are embryonic thoughts, nuclei of spirit-substance from the inner worlds. Improperly conceived in a diseased mind they become vagaries and delusions, but when gestated in a sound mind and formed into rational thoughts they are the basis of all material, moral, and mental progress.

To illustrate the importance of thought, let us mention that all that is in this world which has been made by the hand of man is crystalliesed thought: the chairs upon which we sit, the houses in which we live, the various conveniences we use all these were once a thought in the mind of man. If it had not been fro that thought, the thing would never have appeared. In similar manner, the trees, flowers, mountains, and seas are the crystallized thought forms of the nature forces.

In this world we are compelled to investigate and study a thing before we know about it. However, occult investigators who have been able to function in one of the spiritual worlds, called the World of Thought, find that is different there. When we wish to know about any particular thing there, we turn our attention to it and the thing speaks to us, as it were. The sound it emits at once gives a luminous comprehensive of every phase of its nature. We attain to a realization of its past history; the whole story of its unfoldment is laid bare and we seem to have lived through all of those experiences together with the thing we are investigating. All this information, however, flows in upon us with enormous rapidity in a moment, so that it has neither beginning nor end.

Many people contend that we have a right to think what we will, and that wicked thoughts, if not translated into wicked deeds, are not harmful. This is far from true, and the power of wicked thoughts, just as the power of good and beneficent thoughts, is great indeed. Through the course of centuries, for instance, man’s evil thoughts of fear and hatred crystallize into what we know as bacilli. The bacilli of infectious disease are particularly the embodiments of fear and hate, and, therefore, they are also vanquished by the opposite force – courage. If we enter the presence of a person infected with contagious disease in fear and trembling, we must assuredly draw to ourselves the poisonous microbes. If, on the other had, we approach that person in a perfectly fearless attitude; we shall escape the infection, particularly if we are prompted by love.

If a tuning fork I struck and another tuning form of the same pitch is in the vicinity, the second once will ring in concert with the first. Likewise, when we thing a thought and another person in our environment has been thinking along the same line, our thoughts coalesce with his and strengthen him for good or evil, according to the nature of the thought.

If we always think right, we shall always act right No man can think love to his fellow men, or can scheme about how to help them spiritualty, mentally, or physically without also acting out these thoughts. If we cultivate such thoughts, we shall soon find sunshine spreading around us; we shall find that people will meet us in the same spirit that we send out. If, we see meanness and smallness in the people whom we meet, it would be well to ascertain if we ourselves are not causing such qualities to emanate from us. The man who is mean and small himself radiates these qualities and whoever he meets will appear mean to him because his thoughts will have caused something of identical pitch in the other person to vibrate.

On the other hand, if we cultivate a serene attitude and thoughts that are free from covetousness and are frankly honest and helpful, we shall call out the best in other people. Therefore let us realise that it is not until we have cultivated the better qualities in ourselves that we can expect to find them in others. We are thus most certainly responsible for our thoughts. We are indeed our brothers keepers, for as we think when we meet them, so do we appear to them and they reflect our attitude. If we want to obtain help to cultivate better qualities, then let us seek the company of people who are already good, for their attitude of mind will be of immense help to us in calling forth our own finer qualities.

The flow of thought

The thought actually leaves the brain and hovers about. It enters the brains of others also, A sympathetic thought in you raises a sympathetic thought in others with whom you come in contact. A thought of anger produces a similar vibration in those who surround an angry man.

It leaves the brain of one man and enters the brains of others who live at a long distance and excites them. A cheerful thought produces cheerful thought in others. A thought of joy creates sympathetically a thought of joy in others. You are filled with joy and intense delight when you see a batch of hilarious children playing mirthfully and dancing in joy.

When a thought, whether good or evil, crosses the mind of a person, it gives rise to vibrations in the mental atmosphere, which travels far and wide in all directions. While electricity travels at the rate of 1,86,000 miles per second, thoughts virtually travel in no time, their speed being as much faster than electricity as their vehicle mind is finer than ether, the medium of electricity. 

If you send out a loving, helpful thought to another man, it leaves your brain, goes directly to that man, raises a similar thought of love in his mind and returns back to you with redoubled force. If you send out a thought of hatred to another man, it hurts that man and hurts you also by returning back to you with redoubled force. Therefore, understand the laws of thought raise only thoughts of mercy, love and kindness from your mind and be happy always.

Thought and Purpose

If the thought is not linked with purpose, there is no intelligent accomplishment, They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to worries, fears, troubles and self-pitying, all of which are indications of weakness and lead just as surely as deliberately planned sins, to failure, unhappiness and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe. A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts.

Whatever the aim may be, one should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought.

Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph- People who are not prepared for the apprehension of a great purpose should fix the thoughts upon the faultless performance of their duty, no matter how insignificant their task may appear. Only in this way can the thoughts be gathered and focused, and resolution and energy be developed.

Like a physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking. To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment, who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.

Having conceived of a purpose in mind, a man should mentally mark out a straight pathway to its achievement. Doubts and fears should be rigorously excluded; they are disintegrating elements that break up the straight line of effort, rendering it crooked, ineffectual, useless. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure. Purpose, energy, power to do, and all strong thoughts cease when doubt and fear creep in. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step. FL who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. His every thought is allied with power, and all difficulties are bravely met and wisely overcome. His purposes are seasonably planted, and they bloom and bring forth fruit that does not fall prematurely to the ground. Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force.

Effect of thought on Health and the body

The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad, upon it. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts, the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts, it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty. Disease and health, like circumstances, are rooted in thought. Sickly thoughts will express themselves through a sickly body. Thoughts of fear have been known to kill a man as speedily as a bullet, and they are continually killing thousands of people just as surely though less rapidly. The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it. Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease, while impure thoughts, even if not physically indulged, will soon shatter the nervous system.

Out of a clean heart come a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and corrupt body. Thought is the fountain of action, life and manifestation; make the fountain pure, and all will be pure- If you would perfect your body, guard your mind. If you would renew your body, beautify your mind. Thoughts of malice, envy, disappointment and despondency rob the body of its health and grace. A sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. 

Wrinkles that mar are drawn by folly, passion and pride. As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright happy or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and good will and serenity.

There is no doctor like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion and envy is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all—such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven.

Good thoughts Vs Evil thoughts

A good thought has three important applications:

1. It benefits the thinker by improving his mental body.

2. It benefits the person about whom it is entertained,

3. It benefits all mankind by improving the general mental atmosphere.

On the contrary, an evil thought has three important disadvantages.

1. It harms the thinker by doing injury to his mental bodv.

2. It harms the person who is its object,

3. It harms all mankind by vitiating the whole mental atmosphere. 

Every evil thought is as a sword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If you entertain thoughts of hatred, you are really a murderer of that man against whom you foster thoughts of hatred. A mind tenanted by evil thoughts acts as a magnet to attract like thoughts from others and thus intensifies the original evil. Evil thoughts thrown into the mental atmosphere poison receptive mind. To dwell on an evil thought gradually deprives it of its repulsiveness and impels the thinker to perform an action which emodies it. It is not sufficient that your thoughts are not bad. You must transmute bad thoughts into good thoughts. You must make them helpful thoughts. When they are sent out they must be capable of doing immense good and benefit to the suffering humanity and your neighbors. Thoughts are your own real children. Be careful of your progeny of thoughts- A good son brings happiness, name and fame to the father. An evil son brings infamy, discredit to his father. Even so, a noble thought will bring happiness and joy to you. An evil thought will bring misery and trouble to you, Just as you rear up your children with great care, so also you will have to rear up good sublime thoughts with great care.

Impacts of Negative thoughts

Drive away from your mind all unnecessary, useless and negative thoughts. Useless thoughts impede your spiritual growth; obnoxious thoughts are stumbling blocks to spiritual advancement. You are away from God when you are entertaining useless thoughts. Entertain only thoughts that are helpful and useful. Do not allow the mind to run into the old grooves and to have its own ways and habits. Be on the careful watch.

Thoughts of sin haunt the minds of some persons. One person always thinks, "1 have committed a very heinous sin. I do not know what to do." Again and again, this one idea haunts his mind. This is a bad habit. These people do not know how to divert their minds. They become pray to these 'haunting thoughts'. Virtue and sin are relative terms. They are creations of the mind. Sin is nothing but a mistake. Remembering God's name, charity and fasting will destroy at one any amount of sin. You must eradicate through introspection all sorts of mean thoughts, useless thoughts, unworthy thoughts, impure thoughts, thoughts of jeasousy, hatred and selfishness. You must annihilate all destructive thoughts of disharmony and discord. You must develop good, loving, sublime thoughts. Every thought must be of a constructive nature. It must be strong, positive and must be of a constructive nature. It must be strong, positive and definite.

Develop right thinking. Every thought must bring peace and solace to others. It should not bring even the least pain and unhappiness to anyone. Then you are a blessed soul on the earth. You are a mighty power on the earth. You can help many, heal thousands,

In untrained persons, four or five kinds of thoughts occupy the mind at a time. Household thoughts, business thoughts, thoughts of office, thoughts of food and drink, hope and anticipation, some kind of planning to get money, some kinds of thoughts of revenge, etc., occupy the mind at a time. When you are studying a book with interest at 3.30 p,m7 the idea of pleasure of witnessing a cricket match at 4 p.rru disturbs your study every now and then. It is only a trained person with concentrated mind, who can have only one thought at a time and can keep it as long as he likes.

If you watch the mind carefully, you will find that many thoughts are inconsistent. The mind wanders at random aimlessly. There will be some thoughts of the body and its wants, some thoughts of friends, some thoughts of acquiring money, some thoughts of eating and drinking, etc. If you can study the mind and if you have consistent thoughts of one subject or one kind only to the exclusion of all other thoughts, this itself is a very great achievement is a great step in advancement in thought-control.

Just as energy is wasted in idle talk and gossiping, so also energy is wasted in entertaining useless thought. Therefore, you should not waste even a single thought. Do not waste even an iota of energy in useless thinking. Conserve all mental energy. Utilise it for higher spiritual purposes and meditation and helpful service to humanity.

Do not store in your brain useless information. Learn to unmind the mind. Unlearn whatever you have learnt. They are now useless for you. Then only you can fill your mind with divine thoughts. You will gain new mental strength as all the dissipated mental rays are collected now.

Thought - control

Thoughts are the sources of all actions. Thinking is the real action. If you can root out all evil thoughts in the beginning, you will not do any evil action. If you can nip them in the bud, you will be free from the miseries and tribulations of this world. Watch your thoughts with vigilance and introspection. A wise man watches his thoughts and eradicates all evil thoughts as they arise from the surface of the mind. So he is happy. He has always pure thoughts. By meditation on God, pure thoughts emanate from the mind.

If you have control over your thoughts, you can turn out immense work with intense concentration. Mental torments of all sorts, cares, worries and anxieties will disappear. The peace that you will enjoy cannot be adequately described. Those who have even a little control over their thoughts and speech will have a calm,

serene, beautiful, charming face/ sweet voice and brilliant, lustrous white eyes.

If you think again and again on impure things, an evil thought gains new strength by repetition. It gets the force of momentum. Drive them immediately. If you find it difficult to do so, entertain counter-thoughts of God. A noble thought is a potent antidote to counteract an evil thought. By repetition of God's name thousand of times daily, good thoughts gain new strength by each repetition.

If you are not able to control any evil thought, control the body and speech first. Slowly you will gain mental strength and will-force and will be able to control the thoughts gradually. If, for a moment you think you will not succeed in vanquishing an evil thought, at once get up and set about some work involving physical labour. One effort after another will make gradually the task easy and, in a few weeks, you will obtain a complete control over your thoughts.

Control the physical body and speech first. Then slowly proceed to control thoughts. Do not speak ill of others. You can control your actions only when you have become moral. When you speak ill of a man, you poison the mind of several people. Just comment without hatred or malice is permissible occasionally.

Do not allow useless or evil thoughts to develop themselves into words. Curb the speech. Divert the mind at once to something good. When the mind is vacant, evil thoughts try to enter. Evil thinking is the beginning or starting point of adultery. Mental actions are the real actions. God judges a man by his motives; worldly people judge a man by his external physical actions. You will have to look to the motive of the man. Then you will not be mistaken. Keep the mind fully occupied. Then evil thoughts will not enter. An idle brain is the devil's workshop.

Concept - Positive thinking

Positive thinking is the practice or result of concentrating one's mind affirmatively on what is constructive and good, thereby eliminating from it negative or destructive thoughts and emotions. Whether it be business, family, or health, the most fulfilled and successful individuals in those categories practice positive thinking. Since the concept of positive thinking has not been clearly defined, positive thinking usually is bypassed or used incorrectly and is often simply referred to by the concept of optimism. Because many individuals do not know what comprises positive thinking, it is often referred to as optimism, usually totally leaving out very important aspects of positive thinking.

DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT

The concept of positive thinking can be break-down into three intertwined subdivisions:

1. Internal cognition,

2. Faith, and

3. Influential personal relationships.

An individual has three options. One can chose to be positive, one can chose to be negative, or one can chose not to chose and allow the external environment to determine how one internally feels and externally acts. The same goes for being happy, grateful, thankful, satisfied, optimistic, etc. For example, before you open your eyes in the morning, you can chose to be happy or you can chose to be unhappy. Most people do not make a choice. They chose to open their eyes and open the bedroom curtains. If it is raining, the first assumption is made that the day is going to be bad. If the decision had been made to be happy before waking up and had then looked outside at the rain, it would not have had a negative affect because the decision had already been made that it was going to be a great day.

It is true that external circumstances do have an impact on an individual’s internal environment. Many people take a new situation and automatically turn it into a negative situation, which affects one’s internal state. External factors must feed one’s chosen internal attitude, which will make one’s internal cognition more positive. A more positive internal cognitive state will in turn aid in focusing one’s attention to one’s purpose.

Internal Cognition

The internal cognitive thought process of positive thinking is purpose based. One’s purpose, or greater reason for living, is what drives a person’s internal cognition, or inner thought process. Purpose is defined as something one intends to get or do; intention; aim; the object for which something exists or is done; determination. A burning desire, or internal fire, must be ignited from within in order for a person to be inspired, which in turn leads a person to act on a thought. The driven internal thought process leads to extension action. Having a purpose, which rules you and drives your thought process daily, your internal cognition, keeps you focused on a goal. A prupose in Life (PIL) test was invented by J.C. Crumbaugh “that attempts to measure the degree to which an adult has life goals.” Crumbaugh’s test is based on the concept of “wioll to meaning,” induced by Viktor Frankl. Will to Meaning (WTM) denotes the need to find a suitable purpose and meaning in one’s life. The WTM is the basis and fundamental motivation of logotherapy, developed by Frankl as a technique for addressing problems related to the contemporary existence of meaninglessness.

Positive thinkers dwell on the positive, they dwell on their purpose, they dwell on the things in their external and internal environment that feed their purpose rather than on the negative, which feeds defeat of their purpose. There must be harmony with one’s internal and external states, so purpose can be transformed into action.

Faith - Positive thinking

Positive thinking is based in a spiritual foundation. Positive thinkers have faith in the way the world works, and also have faith that everything in life happens for a reason. Positive thinkers know they have a purpose and meaning of Earth, and hey were put on Earth for a purpose. Positive thinkers know there is opportunity in every situation because there is purpose for every situation, which will help them get closer to their larger purpose in life.

Faith is defined as having confidence, trust, and a belief in a phenomenon without empirical evidence. In that context, a positive thinker has trust in nature, the ticking of the world, or one’s God, and they have been give a purpose that will help them achieve that purpose throughout life, without actually physically seeing evidence. Spiritually is “the subjective experience of something sacred, numinous, or greater than self.” The main aspect of internal cognition in positive thinking is having a purpose that is larger than oneself, which ties into spirituality.

Often time positive thinking is based in religion but it does not have to be based in religion. Religion is a vehicle often used to increase faith and spirituality. Spirituality is moral and emotional in nature and involves an understanding and appreciation of one’s position in the universe, one’s soul, and the role of God. Organised religions provide rituals, routines, and ceremonies that can provide a vehicle for achieving spirituality. Worldly religious views often encourage a more optimistic reflection of life events by supplementing answers to many of life’s deepest questions.

Peoples often derive a sense of purpose and meaning from their faith. Spirituality leads to a self-understanding of objectives and a translation of overarching purpose that guides action. Spirituality provides faith, courage and hope that facilitate wise decision making and actions. Spirituality and faith are connected to internal cognition through purpose. Motivation to focus beyond the self is also derived from faith. Spirituality provides a foundation of core beliefs and a better, holistic understanding of one’s purpose in life. It is faith that gives one reassurance that there are positive forces in the world, that one has a purpose on Earth and is not just human philandering until their time of Earth is done. Faith also helps an individual to feel that the world, in fact, is helping them to achieve their purpose here on Earth.

Relationships

Influential personal relationships can further be divided into there subdivisions, which consist of a relationship with oneself, one’s God, and one’s family.  “Close, supportive, committed relationships also mark happy lives.”  The relationship with oneself, with one’s God, and with one’s family shows a person that one has other people, or beings, helping one through life.  People are not holding the weight of the world on their shoulders, but in fact, always have other to guide and support them.  Positive relationships with meaningful people and beings help to give meaning and purpose to life.

The first important relationship is with oneself, which is associated with internal coginition and purpose.  It is also related to self-esteem.  One must be at peace with oneself, inside and outside.  How one feels on the inside must match what one sees on the outside, or there will be a constant battle in one’s internal cognition.  If there is something that is always on one’s mind, then one’s purpose cannot be the main concept on one’s mind.  One’s internal cognition must be free and at peace so it can freely think.

The second vital relationship is with one’s God, which is associated with faith and often times religion.  Many people believe that they do everything on their own.  People without relationship with God only look for answers to questions within themselves, but often times cannot find answers. People who rely only on themselves often times lack direction and purpose.  Everything in life happens for a reason and God put you on Earth for a reason, for a purpose.

The third aspect of important relationships is composed of family.  One’s family can include those born with blood ties, accepted by marriage, adopted into the family, tied to the same land or clan, or deceased and spiritual ancestors.  Family makes important relationships more significant that just saying they are family or friends.  A very important aspect of most people’s family is marriage.  Nine out of ten people chose marriage as major alternative to aloneness.

Concepts related to Positive thinking

Positive thinking is an internal process, Concepts such as optimism, perception, and self-esteem are vital ingredients in implementing positive thinking into the minds and bodies of individuals.

Optimism - Positive thinking

Positive thinking is the root of optimism.  The reason the word ‘optimistic’ is used to so frequently to describe positive people is because optimism is what is visibly being shown on the outside of the framework of positive thinking.  Optimism is the external form of positive thinking.  Because positive thinking is based on an internal thought process, it must have a way to be shown externally, and that is through optimism.  There is no substance behind optimism if positive thinking is not present/

Conceptually, one of the major differences among optimism, hope, goal setting, and positive affect, is that optimistic expectancies are formed through other forces outside the self, while the others are initiated and determined through the self, while the others are initiated and determined thorough the self, just as positive thinking is.  Optimists are often seen as going through life wearing “rosy colored glasses” or living in a “very happy place”, which is somewhere else besides reality.

Optimists who are based in a strong foundation of positive thinking are simply choosing to find the positive in life.  “When most people say they are being “realistic” they delude themselves: they are simply being negative.”  Optimism is widely defined as a  tendency to expect the best possible outcomes, to dwell on the most hopeful aspect of a situation, a positive attitude that everything happens for the best, or that wishes will ultimately be fulfilled.

Positive thinkers know that bad things happen, but they have faith that everything will work out the way it is supposed to work.  They know that they are still on the road to achieving their purpose, and that is still on the road to achieving their purpose, and that is why they still are able to have an optimistic attitude.  Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them.  Optimists who are grounded in a base of positive thinking and faith are not being naïve by expecting good things to happen to them, because they have faith that God will guide them in the right direction.  If these optimistic feelings are persistent in the face of adversity, they may be defenses against anxiety and disappointed expectations.

The optimistic bias trend of thinking involves the faulty belief that negative events are less likely to happen to optimists, or themselves, that other people.  The optimistic bias states that optimists may not take important health and medical precautions and may not cooperate fully with medical treatment, which could be health damaging or even fatal.  One reason why some people believe that an optimistic bias exists is because optimists have reported coping better with the life threatening and fatal diseases, like HIV, AIDS, and cancer, that those who are not optimistic.

Optimistic bias

The optimistic bias trend of thinking involves the faulty belief that negative events are less likely to happen to optimists, or themselves, that other people.  The optimistic bias states that optimists may not take important health and medical precautions and may not cooperate fully with medical treatment, which could be health damaging or even fatal.  One reason why some people believe that an optimistic bias exists is because optimists have reported coping better with the life threatening and fatal diseases, like HIV, AIDS, and cancer, that those who are not optimistic.

Because optimists dealing with severe and fatal diseases are still able to remain optimistic makes some people speculative over a possible optimistic bias trend existing.  Some researchers speculate that optimists may be in denial of their physical state, and fear that a false sense of security is given to optimists.  In turn, a fear exists that certain steps of recovery are not given attention to by optimists because of the false sense of security.

Positive thing decreases the possibility of an optimistic bias ever exiting and aids in optimist’ precautionary health efforts.  Because positive thinkers know that they have a purpose in life and have an family that loves them, they are more likely to do what they have to do, health wise, to battle sever illnesses.  The reliance of the power of God is also very important and helps give people strength to get through severe illnesses.

Positive thinking increases optimism to a point, but also prevents one from being overly optimistic, as well,  Imagine if you will, a bell curve, with optimism as the vertical axis and positive thinking on the horizontal axis.  Both optimism and positive thinking will increase together until a certain point, when optimism will start to decrease as positive thinking continues to increase, which would be the downward slope of the bell curve.  The optimal part of the bell curve is where optimism and positive thinking are equally high, but optimism will not continue to increase as positive thinking increases, which would not allow an optimistic bias to occur.