Positive and Negative Thinking – Different Bedbugs, Same Mattress

photo credit: mugley

Saboteur is what many coaches call that powerful inner voice that can hold you back.

A recent commenter on a post I wrote a while back – The Myth of Positive Thinking – said he did not believe that positive thinking is a myth.  I must say now that I agree with him.  It was a poorly titled post.  It would have made more sense to focus on the inneffectiveness of positive thinking.

It makes even more sense to give up control of much of our thinking.  Positive, negative a bedfellows of the same mattress, just different bedbugs.  None of us can think our way out of a wet paper bag anyway, to use a surprising switch in metaphors.

An article in Scientific American begins to show that control is more of a problem that thoughts themselves.  In an interesting experiment, sicentists at Tufts University wore some folks out with a bevy of complicated mental exercises with the intent of wearing out that saboteur, that inner voice that works so hard to give us our marching orders.  Reading from the article, what happened is not to lean the participants toward either positive or negative thinking, but to get thoughts out of the way in a more-or-less natural manner.

They were then presented with an interview with an other-race interviewer and asked if they would talk about a controversial subject.  In their worn-out state, the subjects evaluated the conversations (actually, both they, independent observers and the interviewers evaluated) and the conversations were described as –

much more enjoyable than did those whose self-control was intact. That outcome is presumably because they were not working so hard at monitoring and curbing what they said. It may seem counterintuitive, but being cognitively drained made them less inhibited and more candid, which felt good. Try a Little Powerlessness—Pitfalls of Self-Control: Scientific American (8 August 2009)

The term powerlessness is one I wouldn’t use.  I would say that what happened is that control did get out of the way.  The burden of evaluative thinking (whether positive or negative) was removed.  Brain fitness and mental flexibility happen when the pressure of the inner voice is lifted.

How does that happen?  We quit giving it the power it’s grown used to. And then …

The Saboteur kept his (or her) mouth shut for a little while.