Psychologists at the University of Waterloo concluded that [affirmations] make people with low self-esteem feel worse”. —Oliver Burkman, The Power of Negative Thinking So are affirmations best avoided? Let’s parse this out. Affirmations are akin to goal setting. Set an unreasonable goal for yourself and you may feel crummy when you find it out of your… Continue reading When Affirmations Make You Feel Worse
Author: Dan Pouliot
A New Hampshire native, Dan received his BFA in Oil Painting from UNH; his digital works are in multiple permanent collections. Dan’s been a positive psychology student/practitioner, a blogger, an amateur Remote Viewer, and now a novelist. His dual passions for anomalous cognition and positive thinking set the stage for his debut young adult novel, Super Human, published by PortalStar Publishing. Dan describes Super Human as The Karate Kid meets Escape to Witch Mountain.
Venting vs. Poisoning and/or Blaming
Jack Handy would consider speaking negatively about another person as falling off of the positive thinking wagon. Yet venting is a powerful tool in resolving emotional upsets. Venting done right leaves us feeling better afterwards, we become less stuck within ourselves. This is not to say that speaking negatively of others is without fault. Venting done… Continue reading Venting vs. Poisoning and/or Blaming
Crutches
I planted a bunch of sunflowers this year. I noticed one sunflower was having trouble standing up straight, so I put in a stake to prop it up. It continued to grow nicely just like the others. Yesterday, I remove the stake. Despite the sunflower now being considerably taller, it still leaned over. It had… Continue reading Crutches
Stock Predictions Experiment is Finished
… at least for now. [edit 3/20/14: I’ve still been doing stock predictions, and my success rate has improved significantly, currently 11 out of 16 correct, accuracy rate of 69%. More on this in a future post. ] The enthusiasm of my initial success (being able to predict the shape of a stock chart) was… Continue reading Stock Predictions Experiment is Finished
Convictions cause convicts.
‘Convictions cause convicts.’ Whatever you believe imprisons you. —Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger
Wonderful Truths in False Statements
In my 20s I spent a lot of time learning ‘positive thinking’ (for lack of a better term). I was involved in groups who loved throwing out simple statements like “your thoughts create your reality” and “whatever you resist persists”.