Negative thinking feels good.
I think this is exactly right.
A compounding factor is habit. Once you've being doing the same thing over and over, it feels good to keep doing it and uncomfortable not to.
Another reason why negative thinking feels good is that it's passive, and it's easier to be passive than active.
>Another reason why negative thinking feels good is that it's passive, and it's easier to be passive than active.
negative thinking absolves one of responsibility. you can think "this plan won't work, so i'm gonna sit back and watch it fail" and enjoy being a critic instead of a participant.
My experience has been that one has to persist with this concept until the initial indignation ("how dare you say that I'm enjoying this pain") dies down. Then a whole new array of psychological options opens up. It's fascinating. But challenging.
My current understanding is that "positive thinking" is a lot like "having an open mind": social gamesmanship where you say "I disagree with you" but in a way designed to make the other person look bad, at least in the eyes of people who don't both to find out what the words are supposed to mean.
When focusing on problems or prematurely on the solution, you'll get anxious and start seeing problems everywhere. The planning process will get more important then the actual implementation and you'll focus on the smallest problems. Even things that will go away by themselves.
Then without knowing it you'll be one of those people who asks "why?" instead of "how?". And I, like most, don't want to be around a person like that.
