"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is
he." Proverbs 23:7
At one time or another all of us have heard a rendering of
the above maxim, brought into the public consciousness by such popular works of
self-help like The Secret by Rhonda
Byrne, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and the
granddaddy of them all, The Power of Positive Thinking by
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. Along with literally thousands
of similarly themed titles, penned by countless authors
both great and unknown, the central axis upon which these works rest is, to get
down to the marrow of it, a simple but quite radical premise: that the way we
think, feel, and view the world has a direct impact on our health, wealth, success,
relationships, and overall well-being.
Drawing from a diverse array of ancient and modern
spiritual, philosophical, and scientific viewpoints including New Thought; 19th
century Transcendentalism (most
well-known through the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David
Thoreau); Eastern spiritual practices (including Vedanta Hinduism and Buddhism); Esoteric Western
philosophies such as Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and Neoplatonism, as
well as the branch of medical science known as Psychosomatic
medicine (which investigates the role emotions and beliefs play in
contributing to physical illness) and some interpretations of the quantum theory of
physics, these books and their writers assert the premise "thoughts are
things", and that which we habitually contemplate, we manifest in our
lives whether good, bad, or indifferent.
"Oh come on," I can imagine some of you saying.
"What a bunch of New Age pseudo-scientific bunk! What does this have anything to do with the
election? Get to the point, already!"
A little patience, my good people: I understand these have
been tumultuous times, but grant me the patience to bring it all together. No appreciation for a finely crafted
narrative, these days! But I digress...
Indeed, at first glance many of the points put forth by these
authors, when simplified to seemingly sugar coated platitudes such as
"Don't Worry Be Happy," "Life is Good," "Think Happy
Thoughts," "Life is What You Make of It," "You Create your
Own Reality," etc., seem to be devoid of any reality or basis in fact. Be that as it may, there have been
serious scientific efforts made to give some empirical weight behind the idea
that one’s psychological and emotional states have an impact on physical health
and well-being.
A number of studies have
been conducted over the last several decades (including one published in 2003 out
of the University of Wisconsin Madison) demonstrating strong evidence linking
negative emotional states to lowered function of the immune system, increasing
the risk of illness. Richard Davidson, the lead researcher in the study, said,
"This study establishes that people
with a pattern of brain activity that has been associated with positive
[emotions] are also the ones to show the best response to the flu
vaccine... It begins to suggest a mechanism for why subjects with a more
positive emotional disposition may be healthier."
The findings of that study and numerous others validate the work of pioneers in the field of mind
- body medicine such as Dr.
Candace Pert, whose ground breaking biochemical research at the National Institute
of Mental Health created “a scientific
theory by which the emotions integrate
the workings of mind and body.” And of course, there is the ever enigmatic placebo
phenomenon, highlighting the important role belief and suggestion can play
in the healing process.
The seeming power of the mind to affect conditions isn’t
restricted to the realm of materia medica.
Many successful athletes (including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods
and Muhammad Ali),
business people (like Sir
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group), and entertainers
(such as Jim Carrey, Will Smith, and Kanye West) attest to the power of creative
visualization in increasing performance and attaining success in their
respective fields. In some cases, visualization by itself was sufficient to insure a noticeable increase in success.
In the article cited above from Psychology
Today, AJ Levan cites the following study:
"For instance, in
his study on everyday people, Guang Yue, an exercise psychologist from Cleveland Clinic
Foundation in Ohio, compared “people who went to the gym with people who
carried out virtual workouts in their heads”. He found that a 30% muscle
increase in the group who went to the gym. However, the group of participants
who conducted mental exercises of the weight training increased muscle strength
by almost half as much (13.5%). This average remained for 3 months following
the mental training."
I hear the grumbling resuming from the peanut gallery: "Yea,
but what about Trump! What does this all have to do with him?!!!"
Your patience has been rewarded, dear readers: I'll now proceed to bring it on home. Like
many successful people, The Donald attributes a large portion of his successes
in life – foremost among them now his unprecedented win in this
year’s election – to adhering to a faithful application of positive thinking
and unflappable self-confidence (long distance diagnoses of his rampant
narcissism and his thin
skinned reactions aside).
Furthermore, Trump has
cited Norman Vincent Peale - whose services at the Marble Collegiate Church in
New York City a young Donald attended with his family - as being a prime
influence, as mentioned in the linked article above from Politico:
"I still remember
[Peale’s] sermons,” Trump told the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July
[2015]. “You could listen to him all day long. And when you left the church,
you were disappointed it was over. He was the greatest guy.” A month later, in
the same news conference at which Trump tossed out Univision anchor Jorge
Ramos, he again referred to Peale as his pastor and said he was “one of the
greatest speakers” he’d ever seen."
The proof appears to be in the pudding, however unsavory it
maybe. Did we not see, essentially from
the start, Trump’s campaign defy the odds, while committing all of the cardinal
sins in political campaigning and discourse: whether it was slandering
a war hero in Senator John McCain, calling for the banning
of all Muslim immigrants, his xenophobic
comments in regards to Mexico, his unabashed sexism,
etc., he won handily in an election which, according to pollster extraordinaire
Nate
Silver, his opponent Hillary Clinton had a 70%
chance of victory.
Trump shockingly polled, all things considered, well enough
with the same minority groups he continually antagonized during his campaign,
scoring higher
percentages of Black and Hispanic votes than the comparatively milquetoast
GOP nominee Mitt Romney did back in 2012. Even more shocking, according to exit
poll data collected by the New York
Times, 53% of white women voters pulled the lever for the man who has
utilized the following colorful epithets – among an unholy host of others – to describe women: “Disgusting animal”, “fat”,
“pig”, “slob”, and “dog”.
Many theories have been put forth to try to make some sense
of how, just how, a candidate of
Donald Trump’s caliber became leader of the free world. Some commentators have
attributed it to the disturbing rise of the alt-right
movement; others have accused third party candidates such as Libertarian
Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein of siphoning
votes away from Mrs. Clinton, while a small but vocal number are of the mind
that the Democrats doomed themselves by failing to nominate
Senator Bernie Sanders as their party’s candidate.
The veracity of said
theories aside I humbly submit that, despite the sneers and snickers of avowed
“pragmatists”, it was ultimately the power of positive thinking which carried
Mr. Trump to victory. As mentioned in
the Politico article I cited earlier, President elect Trump has cited the
teachings put forth by Norman Vincent Peale in his classic best seller as being
key inspirations to his professional success:
“Believe in yourself!”
Peale’s book begins. “Have faith in your abilities!” He then outlines 10 rules
to overcome “inadequacy attitudes” and “build up confidence in your powers.”
Rule one: “formulate and staple indelibly on your mind a mental picture of
yourself as succeeding,” “hold this picture tenaciously,” and always refer to
it “no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.”Subsequent rules tell
the reader to avoid “fear thoughts,” “never think of yourself as failing,”
summon up a positive thought whenever “a negative thought concerning your
personal powers comes to mind,” “depreciate every so-called obstacle,” and
“make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent.”
As we have seen Trump has, if nothing else, been able to
convey an unwavering sense of self-assuredness amidst the near constant stream
of negative media attention. His vision of success and belief in his abilities
– though conveyed more often than not in a boorish and low brow delivery –
cast him in the eyes of the electorate as a political outsider who will “tell
it like it is” and “drain the swamp” of Washington; whether that actually
proves true remains to be seen (among his early
cabinet choices are several mainstays of the conservative establishment,
for instance, and he has of late toned
down his campaign promises to carry out his proposed Muslim ban, withdrawal
of the US from NAFTA, and construct the Mordor-esque Great Wall on the border
with Mexico ). Either way as history has proven, to paraphrase an old
saying, confidence covers a multitude of deficiencies.
Now before there is an outbreak of weeping and gnashing of
teeth, along with accusations of being a Trump guy, I do not endorse or agree
whatsoever with Mr. Trump's political opinions.
I did not vote for him (or any candidate for that matter, but that is a
different topic for another post). However his political ideology (or
lack thereof) is ultimately beside the point of this article, which is to
highlight the often mocked, misunderstood but irrefutably potent power that a
positive mindset can have in determining a person's success, regardless of
their respective intentions or ethical code.
"How can such a BAD person be SO successful!" I
hear screamed with righteous indignation. "IT'S NOT FAIR!"
Yes, according to the traditional paradigm of dark and
light, "good vs. evil" thinking in which we have been brought up in
our heavily Judeo-Christian influenced culture, it may seem unfair that a man
as brazenly impudent, uncouth, ignorant, and insensitive as Donald Trump should
achieve any measure of success. But, while it may be a hard truth for some to
swallow, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to succeeding,
whether one is "good" or "bad" has little to no effect on
the outcome. To borrow a few quotes from Scripture itself:
"Then Peter
opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of
persons." Acts 10:34
"That ye may be
the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
unjust." Matthew 5:45
Is that to say the way Trump and others of his ilk go about
using their drive and vision for success - in a spirit of cut throat
competition, discrimination, and fear mongering - is best? A thousand times no!
The point I am trying to make is that, as with every other neutral power of
Nature, the potent and awe inspiring force that is the mind can
be applied either productively or destructively. Just as electricity can be
used to light up a home or shock someone to death, or water used to either
bathe or drown someone, the way the faculties of the mind are put to use
depends on the intention, beliefs, and world view of the person. That is why
Buddha, in his Nobel
Eightfold Path, identified samma –
ditthi or right view or understanding of the world, as the first step
toward enlightenment. Shakespeare also
famously and succinctly summed it up through Hamlet when he said, "For there is nothing good or bad, but
thinking makes it so." That was the principle that Dr. Peale, despite
the accusations of his detractors, was trying to make in his books and sermons.
“Oh yea MacCormack,” I hear some of you saying, “What do you
suppose we do about this monstrosity of a man! He must be stopped! What good
will just thinking about it do!”
I don’t claim to hold all the answers, but I can say this:
channeling the palpable upset over the election results into wanton
rioting and endless shouts of “NOT
MY PRESIDENT!” (which, if memory serves, is the same divisive clarion call
conservatives have made against the outgoing President) will
not reap any substantive fruit.
Many anti-Trump voters and activists adopted the moniker of
“Love Trumps Hate” during the campaign, but now that their preferred candidate
lost, seem all too eager to dispense with that idealistic sentiment for knee
jerk emotionally clouded (and in some cases destructive) reactions. Fighting
the fire of Mr. Trump’s platform with more fire will only lead to a greater
conflagration: hatred begets hatred, violence spawns more violence. Or, to put
it Biblically, “All who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)
“What are we to do then, Mr. Smart Guy!”
Part of effecting change at any level – both individually
and collectively – starts with an honest evaluation of the current
situation. In this case the simple fact
is that, whether you like it or not, Donald Trump was democratically elected
the 45th President of the United States, and will take office come
January 2017. Calls to abolish
the Constitutionally codified system of the Electoral College, as well as
petitions circulating to convince
pro Trump electors to switch their votes to Mrs. Clinton (which is
unlikely) notwithstanding, this is the
hard present reality of living in a democracy.
As President Obama – who voiced loudly his opposition to Trump’s
campaign – himself put it nearly a week
after the election:
“Look, the people have
spoken. Donald Trump will be the next
President, the 45th President of the United States. And it will be up to him to set up a team
that he thinks will serve him well and reflect his policies. And those who didn’t vote for him have to
recognize that that's how democracy works.
That's how this system operates.”
Furthermore, the outgoing President said
he is “Rooting for his [Trump’s]
success in uniting and leading the country.”
With all of that said, I think we can take a step back from
the apocalyptic doomsayers and take a more practical and – dare I say –
positive approach to the situation.
Though it may not seem like it at first glance, there's an
important lesson to be learned from Trump's success. If we could all
appropriate that same level of confidence and belief in ourselves - and direct
it along far more harmonious, productive, and constructive lines - then we
would be well on our way to living our ideal lives. As many of my fellow millennials are among
the most veracious critics of Mr. Trump, I will use them as an example.
If you are part of the 44%
of 20 something college graduates stuck in an under paying job or among the
ranks of unemployed 18-30
year olds, why not focus on channeling the energy currently being wasted in
anger and upset on outside events towards a positive program of
self-improvement toward your job performance, or into crafting a vision to
start your own business? For those who would be quick to cite the bad economy,
political unrest, etc. as strikes against any chance at growth, recent
studies demonstrate the rise of successful millennial entrepreneurs who are
starting and managing increasingly larger businesses, all in the midst of such
apparent hardship.
Worrying and fretting
over external events which we ultimately have no control over (despite beliefs
to the contrary, i.e. “We the People” vote directly for the President, which we
don’t, electors
do) only adds to the collective irrational sense of chaos and impending
doom. We would be much better off to heed the advice of the Greco-Roman Stoic
philosopher Epictetus: “The chief task in
life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly
to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with
the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to
uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . .
.”
If we seek change, the most immediate and practical place to
start is in our own lives, both personally and professionally: after all, if one
can’t even met the basic necessities of food, rent, and utilities, what would
all the politicking and keyboard
slacktivism avail you? Why not take such readily available, applicable, and
proven methods as articulated in Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, to begin achieving personal peace
of mind and financial stability:
“ 1. Formulate and
stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold
this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to
develop this picture. Never think of yourself as failing; never doubt the
reality of the mental image.
2. Whenever a negative
thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind, deliberately voice a
positive thought to cancel it out.
3. Do not build up
obstacles in your imagination. Depreciate every so called obstacle. Minimize
them. Difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated,
but they must be seen for only what they are. They must not be inflated by fear
thoughts.
8. Make a true
estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent. Do not become
egotistical, but develop a wholesome self-respect.” (Excerpts from Chapter 1:
Believe in Yourself, pages 24-25)
As shown in the studies and examples I cited above, such
plain and homespun axioms on the old topic of “mind over matter” are backed by
solid empirical evidence and have been proven in practical demonstration. If
the power of the mind can be utilized to achieve physical well-being and maximum
athletic/professional success by people of all ages, races, religions,
political affiliations, and socio-economic backgrounds, why would they not work
now, to improve both our lives, both individually and collectively as a
society?
Would not achieving, through the combination of a positive vision and
unceasing belief in our abilities, financial success and greater confidence
give us the resources we need to support and address the issues of national –
and global – import which are dear to us, such as alleviating poverty, human
rights, and climate change? Look at such successful business people, public
leaders, and celebrities such as Mark
Zuckerburg, Elon
Musk, Desmond Tutu,
Mark
Ruffalo, Gisele
Bunchden, and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who have utilized their respective talents and platforms to
contribute to causes near and dear to them and countless others.
The principle applies equally well to those of a more
activist bent too: with a spirit of confidence and belief, cultivate your
talent, whether you have a penchant for writing, speaking, art, etc, and use it
as a way to express and stand up for the issues you believe in, whether it be
LGBTQ rights, prison reform, or ending the War on Drugs. If President Trump
does indeed attempt to enact some of his draconian proposals, don’t simply
scream and shout: marshal your skills and powers to, in your own way, stand and
defend the right.
This is precisely
what Frederick Douglass, the renowned orator, writer, and statesman, did, in
using the power of his focused mind to A. achieve his freedom from slavery and
B. become the pre-eminent anti-slavery voice of his generation. He articulated
this philosophy wonderfully in his speech titled “Self-Made Men”:
“Self-made men are the
men who, under peculiar difficulties and without the ordinary helps of favoring
circumstances, have attained knowledge, usefulness, power and position and have learned from themselves the best uses to
which life can be put in this world, and in the exercises of these uses to
build up worthy character. They are the men who owe little or nothing to birth,
relationship, or friendly surroundings; to wealth inherited or to early
approved means of education; who are what they are, without the aid of any
favoring conditions by which other men usually rise in the world and achieve
great results. . .
“They are in a
peculiar sense indebted to themselves for themselves. If they have traveled
far, they have made the road on which they have travelled. If they have
ascended high, they have built their own ladder . . . Such men as these,
whether found in one position or another, whether in the college or in the factory;
whether professors or plowmen; whether Caucasian or Indian; whether Anglo-Saxon
or Anglo-African, are self-made men and are entitled to a certain measure of
respect for their success and for proving to the world the grandest
possibilities of human nature, of whatever variety of race or color.”
Furthermore, when it came to the idea of external “luck” or
circumstance being the primary factor in one’s success or failure, the former
slave added:
“I do not think much
of the good luck theory of self-made men. It is worth but little attention and
has no practical value. An apple carelessly flung into a crowd may hit one
person, or it may hit another, or it may hit nobody. The probabilities are
precisely the same in this accident theory of self-made men. It divorces a man from his own achievements,
contemplates him as a being of chance and leaves him without will, motive,
ambition and aspiration. Yet the accident theory is among the most popular
theories of individual success. It has about it the air of mystery which the
multitudes so well like, and withal, it does something to mar the complacency
of the successful.”
If we take only one thing away from Donald Trump’s
stupefying rise to the Oval Office, it should be the timeless truth observed by
Napoleon Bonaparte: “Imagination governs the world.” Would it not be far more productive to, in the timeless
words of Theodore Roosevelt, venture “into the arena” of our minds and
hearts, crafting a vision of success, harmony, integrity, and equanimity, not
only for ourselves, but for our families, friends, communities, states, and the
nation? One ounce of unyielding optimism
is worth a pound of sardonic cynicism, whether of the liberal or conservative
variety.
Nonetheless, the point will be more likely than not be poo
pooed as rosy sounding idealism devoid of any real solutions. Is it any less
hollow than engaging in noxious rounds of empty sound and fury, punctuated by
the ever ready cry of “Fascism!” as protesters congest
highways and hurl Molotov cocktails, in addition to perpetuating the same
cruel violence on
Trump supporters which is being visited upon minorities
and others by equally mindless, ignorant, reactionary conservatives?
Name calling, chest thumping, and internet troll wars only
amplify the madness. Let us, in the legendary words of Winston Churchill, keep
calm and carry on. Let us try to keep
sight of the fact that, as a democracy, the mayhem we see unfolding on the
screen of space is nothing more than the contents of our collective
consciousness made manifest. If “We the People” truly hold the power, let us
begin exercising that power – not just through elections, canvassing,
politicking, and campaigning, but through governing the most unruly mob of all:
our own fears, prejudices, ignorance, and superstitions.
As it is said in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30,
verse 19:
"I have set
before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that
both thou and thy seed may live."
Let us, in in a positive spirit, choose life – for
ourselves, and each other.
