The Power of Positive -and Negative- Thinking

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The late Norman Vincent Peale wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, a tremendous book that changed the lives of millions and even gave my life a welcome boost. I would love to have discussed with him his views of positive thinking. I might have suggested we now take a step further to also look at the incredible power of the negatives in our lives. Dr. Peale’s theory of focusing our lives in the direction of a vision is as valid today as when he outlined it, and I believe he indicated full agreement with my theory of using negative energy to empower us to our goals when he said: “Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have!”

Many writers labor over books on how to eliminate fear from our lives; they seem to think fear is to the Devil what grace is to God, an evil that must be suppressed. Yet we are in fear everyday and it doesn't it serve us well, we do better on our jobs, better in our relationships and take the risks to better our entire lives; all of it motivated by fear. I'm not talking about anxiety or panic; those states of temporary emotional imbalance are fears gone off-center. Here is how we keep fear healthy; we focus on our visions with positive attitudes and move toward them until we feel the fear rising, then we direct that energy into our missions. We may have to retrain ourselves to recognize fear not as the enemy, not as a baddie; but simply as a balance to all that is positive; a necessary balance if we are to find success at anything worthwhile. Polarity: darkness and light, sorrow and happiness, loss and gain, we do need both poles for balance, for reality. Without sorrow, would happiness be possible? Embracing negativity does not mean becoming an ogre or suffering needlessly; it means taking complete charge of our lives.

Initially, negative energy always feels like fear...because that’s what it is. Whether the negative emotion is sorrow, anger, or depression, the core is fear; and we can teach ourselves to convert it into to pure, clean energy. Norman Vincent Peale again speaks to us when he says: “The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.”

Here is an easy example: your child is a block away and you suddenly realize she is in extreme danger! What happens? Your body surges with power and adrenaline your mind becomes hyper-alert and you rise to a higher level of clarity, courage and confidence and then accomplish something you thought you could not- thus fear is transformed into energy. Now you have discovered a new, more powerful you, and if you will anchor that identity by using the methods of Trask’s Triangle, you never need go back to being less than that.

People climb perilous mountains, hike across the Arctic wilderness, dive to the bottom of oceans and challenge themselves in other ways that help them use fear energy to grow in clarity, confidence and courage. But we don’t have to climb mountains. We can use that power in smaller, yet very effective ways such as making that dreaded phone call, tackling that overwhelming task, apologizing, forgiving or even asking for help when we need it. What holds us back is our fear of fear. I’m suggesting we learn to deliberately harness the energy of fear for our use. It was a lesson brought home to me one day when I was quite young and it changed my life forever.

On a rainy afternoon I was sitting at dinner with a friend in his country home when a terrible screeching and crash-banging, two cars collided on the road not two hundred feet from where we sat. From the awful sound I instantly understood there would be serious injuries. An electrical charge shot through my loins and up my spine into my head. I stumbled up from my chair and ran out the front door toward the crushed and smoking cars. I will always remember that run; imagining what was waiting for me and knowing I was not up to the task, not skilled enough, not knowledgeable enough, not courageous enough. I was simply not enough; my fear grew and my legs felt like lead as I ran. But as I neared the cars I heard children wailing; then the fear changed to something else and I became angrily single-minded. I was still afraid, but the terror had changed to determination.

I had taken first aid courses and done some emergency work, but little of what I knew was going to be helpful that day. I needed to understand who to help first and who to let die and how to do medical things that were very extreme. Unfortunately the accident happened sixty miles from the nearest city or hospital so I was alone; stopping bleeding, doing mouth-to-mouth and treating for shock. It was an hour and a half before members of a volunteer fire department began to arrive. During that time I made at least two serious mistakes in trying to save these good people. I did everything I knew, but still, I lost three of the seven: a child and two adults.

My friend and his family stayed in their house; they never came out to help. No doubt the sound of the crash shot them full of the same fear I felt, but rather than use it, they let the energy paralyze them. Fear is like that, either we harness it or it harnesses us. When that negative energy wells up we make the choice of resisting our fear, hiding from it, suffocating it and becoming powerless, or embracing it and letting its power teach us who we are.

The memory of those dying people stayed with me, and the taste of chocolate in a dying boy’s mouth kept me from eating chocolate for years. The shock of that day, what I did right and what I did wrong caused me to design a process whereby one could come upon a multiple injury disaster and do exactly the right thing. It is an acronym that keeps a rescuer always on the right track. Later, as I worked in big city ambulances and consulted with ER doctors, I managed to perfect the process and begin teaching it. The Governor of California asked me to explain it to California legislators; it moved them to support and help push through what we now know as Paramedic and EMT programs. My very small part of that evolution could never have happened if I had stayed safely in the house on that rainy day and let my terror become paralysis.

The dynamic balance of positive and negative energies came together and empowered me beyond what I thought I could do. As the fear swelled up and pushed me toward my goal, I constantly felt its negativity; the pain, helplessness, confusion and sorrow that  fueled me as I worked on to make the impossible happen. Four people were saved who might have somehow lived anyway, without my efforts. But a miracle certainly did happen that day, and it was in me.

Ah! But to become powerful enough to willingly turn terror into friendly fear and into an excitement that will serve us; to embrace and tame the wild beast of fear and train it to support us; to feel that adrenaline kick and fully accept it, knowing we are about to step beyond the border of a comfort zone and create something new; that’s true personal power.

Negative does not mean bad- we love our negatives. Nearly all songs we enjoy are about sorrow and loss and our favorite movies and TV series are filled with tragedy. Why? Because a story without its negative stimulus would not sell; it would be boring and unbalanced. We want to see someone like us step forward and use their fear energy to save the day. Then we can leave with a smile of satisfaction.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, moved us to visualize positive outcomes. While holding that truth, we now take the next step; we use the negative power in fear to empower our missions and turn our visions into reality.

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*A wonderful thing has happened!  The respected New York journalist, Heather Robinson, wrote a great article about my work and my books; Living Free and Romancing The Soul, Your Personal Guide to Living Free. The article has been posted in the Huffington Post and elsewhere. Follow the below link and let me know what you think;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-robinson/bob-trask-an-american-thi_b_335597.html

And now a tiny bit of humor for you:

"I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.

But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalog:

'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.'"

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Our hero of the week is:

Nicholas D. Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who with dedication and tireless focus, is constantly using his influence for the betterment of the unseen, suffering people around the world. Check him out at: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html