A lot of folks in the community advocate various forms of “Positive Thinking.” For example, you might hear a lot of people talk about “The Secret,” or “The Law of Attraction,” or just give general advice of “Don’t worry about it” or “You’re over-thinking this; just relax” in response to questions about getting over approach anxiety. I encountered a lot of this sort of advice when I first found the community. Some of it worked, to an extent. Some of it never worked at all. Ultimately, my approach anxiety was too deeply rooted for positive thinking to overcome.
Then I came across a book a long time ago called The Positive Power of Negative Thinking, which was one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read. If you are a pessimist, an introvert, have a lot of anxiety, etc., you owe it to yourself to check it out. (As always, we don’t have any commercial affiliations or make any commission off of this in any way.) It explains why positive thinking works — but only for some people, not others.
Eventually, I found some things that worked for my approach anxiety. First, the Lefkoe Method, mentioned in the previous blog post, and in a related post by Steve Pavlina. Second, Implosion Therapy, which I plan to blog about, and do a lair talk about, in the future.
I recently came across a couple of blog posts that explore some of the same ideas.
Why Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work