The Power of Positive Thinking - Norman Vincent Peale

Have you ever wondered what is the true extent of powers of a human? It's significantly more than you can fathom. But there is a Higher Power which runs the entire cosmos, yes, the Power of the Omnipotent. This book, written by Norman Vincent Peale, is a masterpiece which justifies the means by which the connect between the powers of the human and the Higher Power is formed, and following is a summary.

The number of patients of mental disorders have conspicuously risen compared to the last decade. Anxiety, stress, etc. are some of the mental disorders which are quite common. Why? One of the primary reasons is low self-belief. People tend to forget that succeeding is great, but facing or encountering failure is also a part of life. They are forgetting that there is a tomorrow, a chance to rebuild, recreate, a chance to correct your mistakes. Nothing is quite that final.

Sometimes, people usually talk too much because of an inferiority feeling, wanting the other person to like you, to notice you and to respond to you. These inferiority feelings can cause unreliability in confidential matters. This, is again due to low self-belief. You must believe in yourself if you want to become a superior. The key to becoming superior, it's not money or political power, it's spiritual power. Superiority in spiritual power is what should be accomplished and you would find all the answers to your questions. How to achieve it? Pray. Pray to the Higher Power, pray to the God, to help you solve all your problems. The human mind is so beautiful, you can have what you want just by praying, the only thing that matters is the magnitude of your prayer, the intensity of your need. Remember, results will be positive in consideration to a need, not to a want. The first step is self-believing. Believe in yourself, for prayer is infinitely more effective if you believe that you would get what you need, or sometimes want.

In order to believe in yourself, you must know yourself. Practice the art of silence for at least a quarter of an hour everyday. Go alone to the quietest place available to you and sit or lie down. Your mind will be bombarded by millions of thoughts, which may be of memories, guilt, fear or random scenarios. Observe them. Let the thought complete but do not lose your focus. The type of thoughts which occur the most would define the type of person you are. Moreover, this practice of meditation will help you achieve inner peace. Many times, people who are lacking in inner peace are victims of self-punishment mechanism. At some point of time they have committed a sin and the sense of guilt haunts them. These people are good at heart for they recognized the problem and feel guilty about it, but, the guilt haunting them affects their functionality, behavior and can also lead to mental disorders. Meditation will help them to realize that the past is not something that they can change unless time-travel is possible, however, they have the present and the future at hand, so try to right the wrongs.

The book also talks about having constant energy. It is not hard-work that drains energy but the emotional upheaval. How to be free from it? By being in spiritual contact with God through our thought processes, the Divine energy flows through the personality, automatically renewing the original energy. You only lose energy when life becomes dull in your mind. Your mind gets bored and therefore tired doing nothing. The only solution to avoid losing energy is to get interested and absolutely enthralled in something. The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. Please note, its not about determination, but about loving what you do which is followed by determination. As a result, you won't have time to think about yourself and get bogged down in emotional difficulties.

Let me ask you this, have you been happy or unhappy today? Yes, you may argue that you were happy initially but as time passed on, certain events forced you to be unhappy and at the end of the day you ended up being unhappy. What if I tell you that there was no reason to be unhappy? That you are unhappy because of a habit of being unhappy? Every morning you wake up, you have two choices, either to be happy or to be unhappy, then why not choose the former? By choosing to be happy each morning, you are trying to convince your mind to create a habit of being happy, and habits can be created hence, you create your own happiness. Every morning before arising, lie relaxed in your bed and deliberately drop happy thoughts into your conscious mind. Praying whole-heartedly can fetch amazing results. Experts in physical health and well-being often utilize prayer in their therapy. Disability, tension, and kindred troubles may result from a lack of inner harmony.

It is remarkable how prayer restores the harmonious functioning of body and soul. Prayer power is a manifestation of energy, which enables the release of spiritual energy through the mechanism of prayer. Its power seems able to even normalize the ageing process, removing or limiting weaknesses or illnesses, especially the ones caused by old age, and even deterioration. The secret of prayer is to find the process that will most effectively open your mind humbly to God. The book has many examples which depict that hard-work, positive thinking, fair dealing, right treatment towards other people, and the proper kind of praying always gets results. When is the correct time to pray you would ask. Anytime. Pray while you are eating, drinking, working or performing any activity but, it would be utmost beneficial if you pray especially before sleeping, for the prayer has a powerful effect when it is dropped into the subconscious at the moment of its greatest relaxation.

Learn to expect, not to doubt. Change your mental habits to belief instead of disbelief, again emphasizing positive thinking. Things become better when you expect the best instead of the worst, for the reason that being freed from self-doubt, you can put your whole self into your endeavor, and nothing can stand in the way of the person who focuses his entire self on solving a problem. Put yourself into whatever you do and have faith in God for He will help you to achieve your goal. If in depth of your mind you visualize the best and employ the powers of faith and energy, you will get the best.

Do not be afraid of any obstacles that you incur, instead, believe in yourself and in God, that in combination with Him, you have the power to handle any such obstacles. Do not be disheartened when the obstacle incurred is bigger than you had pondered, it may slow you down, but faith in God and dutiful continuation of your work will fetch you great results. Your subconscious may counter by trying to make you believe that there is no such thing as faith, but, know this, that your subconscious is one of the greatest liars in existence. It concurs in and sends back to you your own errors about your abilities. You have created the negative attitude in your subconscious and it gives this error back to you. Hence, if you talk to your subconscious mind with positivity, in due course it will be convinced.

If you have a problem, start to find a solution or pray to God for help rather than whining about your current situation. Great fact to remember in connection with difficult problems - "the rough is only mental". If you focus on the problem, the problem would seem to grow, whereas, if you focus on yourself and the desired result, your chances to achieve that result, along with you, would grow. Sometimes when the seemingly unsolvable obstacle is incurred, it leads to an unhealthy and destructive mental habit - worrying. Worrying causes many health issues such as suppressed immune system for short-term, digestion problems and heart disease. Of course, worrying is not intentional, it is something that is triggered by expecting the occurrence of a particular event which is not desired or beneficial for you. Let me tell you this, worrying is just a mental habit that is draining your energy, it has no rational explanation as to why do you worry. For example, if you are worrying about your future, which is one of the most common worries amongst youngsters, then please relax and accept your life as it is. Be thankful for what you have and pray for what you need/want. Worrying does not allow you to live and enjoy the present, moreover, it drains your mental energy on insignificant thoughts, causing anxiety, depression, etc. at a later stage.

How can you give up on the mental practice which has been subconsciously developed within you? Well, practice the opposite. Practice praying and believing instead of worrying. When you worry about something, your mind is constantly stuck at the same thought, and many of you would agree with me that the situation or the circumstance you were worried about actually occurred. That's the incredible power of our minds. Instead, if you have faith and practice positive thinking after emptying your mind, you would notice that the result is magnificent. So, if you shift your mind from fear to faith you will stop creating the object of fear, and will, instead, actualize the object of your faith. Start by casting out worries on the farthest branches of your fear, and gradually move on to the one that you worry about the most. This method will help you develop a habit of practicing faith instead of fear.

The book also highlights methods to solve your personal problems through the power of faith and prayer. Pray to God, talk to Him, ask Him for help and He will surely help you. First of all, it is very important to realize that the power to solve any problems is within you, you just don't know the correct path to follow yet, and that is when you start praying. Do not be disappointed if the results you obtained were not as per your expectations for God will have planned something even better for you and will be brought to you at the time He feels is suitable. Consider God as your best-friend, as your mentor, as your partner, as your well-wisher (I do), and talk to Him daily.

Can faith solve all the problems? Yes. What about health problems? Definitely. Religion deals with thoughts and feelings and basic attitudes, as described in the book, while, modern medication also takes into consideration the close connection between how a man thinks and feels. This is the intersecting point, where science meets religion, facts meet beliefs, medical science meets spiritual science and results in the healing process. The book justifies it by giving incredible examples of people who cured themselves from various diseases and also states that "A sensible and effective pattern for health and happiness is to utilize the skills and methods of medical science to the fullest possible extent and at the same time apply the wisdom, the experience, and the techniques of spiritual science." Most of your problems and sicknesses can be treated, not by taking medicines, but by changing the perspective, by changing the way you think. Surrender yourself unto God and believe in His power, have faith that He will cure you and the results will never disappoint you.

I am sure you must have heard the sentence - A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. Well, the phrase is absolutely true. When you workout, you start feeling stronger which would give you a boost in confidence. However, I would like to rephrase the sentence - A healthy mind will develop a healthy body. If you take this sentence literally, it would make little sense, hence, it is to be understood in the context of the link between the mental, that is the mind, and the physical, that is the body. Of course you would not grow abs overnight if you only think about it or dream about it, however, you will most definitely be able to avoid or cure certain diseases or ailments if you train your mind to think healthy thoughts. The book gives extraordinary real-life examples which consists of curing and recovering due to positive thinking. Anxiety and stress are completely mental disorders, but, the effect of these disorders are also reflected on your body, such as, head aches, shivers, sweating, bodily weakness, etc. which proves the intense effect mental pain has on physical conditions.

By making your thought pattern more optimistic, you are creating new opportunities for yourself which would help you derive the desired result, hence remodeling you entirely. It would definitely feel difficult at first, but consistency and persistence will surely fetch you results. As mush as positive thinking is important, so is socializing important for a healthy mind. Interacting with strangers, friends, colleagues, etc. believe it or not, helps boost one's confidence and self-esteem. Many people claim that they are introverts, thus, they have trouble making friends and approaching people. Most of the times, it is the other way around. If you aren't approachable and friendly, you surely are going to face problems socializing, which would lead to either of the following two situations:
1. Self-blame: you would accuse yourself, feeling inferior to others and as a result, feeling anxious when under similar situations and your self-confidence decreases.
2. Blaming others: you feel that you are approachable but superior to all the people you meet. As a result, you have developed an egocentric attitude and no matter how well you try to hide it, some traits of your personality will give away your true nature which would again give you trouble socializing.

How can you be free from it? Again, change your mindset. Practice mind-emptying and then fill your mind with positive thoughts of yourself and the other person. Slow down in your hectic life every once in a while. Observe the beauty of the nature, it would help you cleanse your soul against any negative feelings or grudges which must not be held on to. Smile, it costs nothing, but to the other person, it may be the best thing that had happened the entire day. Small acts of gratitude such as a simple 'Thank You' and making a small talk with a stranger that you met in park, the security guard of your society, etc. will help to develop your character and charisma. Soon, you would notice that people will look forward to talk to you, and you will be able to make a lot of new friends and socialize.

One of the most common fears in the world is the fear of death. Although people may deny that they aren't afraid, deep down they know that they are afraid indeed. Death, it is something which must not be feared, but, it must not be awaited as well. The author beautifully explains what happens when a person dies, with a lot of surprising and real-life examples, which would completely eradicate your fear of death. Death is inevitable but what actually happens, no one knows. People believe that the soul is transported to another universe, while some believe that the soul changes bodies and comes back as a new creature. But who do you listen to? Let me answer that question. Spiritual books, such as The Bhagavad-gita, will be the answers to your questions. They beautifully explain, that during the time of death, all that is left behind is material in nature, loved ones, house, money, body, etc. however, the soul continues to thrive. What happens after? I believe it depends upon your Karma, your deeds. If you have been good enough your entire life and believe in spiritual existence, then you shall receive a release from the material world into the spiritual world, freedom from the cycle of birth and death, however, if you weren't, then you will return to compensate for your not-so-good deeds. These are my beliefs. I also urge you, to seek spiritual wealth rather than material wealth, for the latter would just be left behind but the former will accompany you.