Mormons View on Positive Thinking

In the internet, a person can find a number of articles by Mormons on positive thinking. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints have produced a number of writings and have given a lot of advice concerning the power of positive thinking.

Many missionaries have focused more on teaching about the contemporary concept of positive thinking and less on scripture. This has led to the view of some Mormons that positive thinking can be quite destructive to their beliefs. This is because of the fact that positive thinking does not focus on God, but it focuses on the power of self.

Positive thinking promotes a person’s ego. People are believed to be able to tap into the power of positive thinking by convincing themselves that they can accomplish anything if they set their minds to it. However, people who believe in the power of positive thinking tend to forget about their limitations.

Whatever things we can accomplish and whatever new heights that we reach, we still remain to be human and we still remain to be fallible. Fanatics of the power of positive thinking believe that we can overcome our flaws and our humanity just by having the right attitude in life. Their teachings say nothing about trusting in a higher power to attain success.

However, not many people realize the fact that the pioneer of the power of positive thinking in these modern times was, in fact, a preacher. Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the book “the power of positive thinking”, was a Christian preacher and author.

Too much positive thinking, some Mormons would say, corrupts a person’s life. When you think too positively, you become blinded to the reality of the world. You forget that in life, we face a number of risks and we cannot make those risks go away just by ignoring them. Too much positive thinking tends to cloud the mind. A person who has too much positive thinking tends to be blinded by the opportunities and not see the threats of life. Because of this, positive thinking can be very dangerous to human beings.

We live in a world where survival is a question of balance. There are a number of factors affecting our lives that we cannot account for. In order to survive in the world today, we should be able to perceive reality as it is. We cannot be too pessimistic because that would cause us to despair and abandon life before we had a chance to live it. We cannot be too optimistic because this will cause us to lose our perception of reality and become haphazard in our decision-making.

We need to take a look at the world around and see the reality. True, positive thinking can help us move forwarding life by destroying our self-doubt. However, there are times when we must trust our self-doubt. There are times in life when we need to take a step back. Having too much optimism can make us lose our grip on things and charge ahead, oblivious to the danger of our actions.

The Mormon view on positive thinking is diverse. One cannot truly say that all Mormons consider positive thinking to be a joke. However, one can surmise that because of all the contradictions that this philosophy holds to their belief, many Mormons will certainly be opposed to it.

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