Photo was taken during my visit in Marilog, Davao

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒚 [Negative thinking]

We always have had bad experiences, misfortunes, or frustrations at some point in life. In whatever path we are about to take, there will always be circumstances that lie ahead; it always seems inescapable, our will is compatible to where it should be determined. In most cases, we always tend to look for someone who can bear with us during the occurrence of a painful present so we can venture out our bad experiences, or expecting advice from trusted people that may help us for consolation, hoping that they would have understood our causes. What most of us expect is encouragement or acknowledgment of our worth, we all agree however from it, but in what way this encouragement must be invoked? To be told “always be positive” or “stop thinking negative things” while leaving the inner negatives [in us] unidentified? If one wishes to improve or make itself better by always convincing itself to neglect everything which is negative is no other than ignorant of its own causes; this kind of encouragement is the negative itself. For example: a person who had invested on a particular hotel and resort stocks in the stock market today has already experienced a great loss due to pandemic, however, in a positive way of thinking, this person is convinced that his losses will bounce back eventually and decided to buy more large volume of stocks; or, a battered wife, in her positive way of thinking, believes her abusive husband may soon change, so she decided to continue being a martyr in their relationship; or, a gambler, in his positive thinking and despite of streak losses, believes for a moment of his greatest luck and bets all his money in to the game, after he lost again, and instead of restricting itself, he decided to withdraw all his savings from the bank so he can continue the game for a better luck.

The consequence of always-already thinking positive yet ignorant of the causes will always arrive at an impasse. The Self is unaware that by dismissing or forgetting the negative in itself has always affirmed the opening of another negative, what you will likely get is a chain of negatives; thus, every negative is subjected to revival at any time. What is meant from this exposition? If anyone is convinced to dismiss all unpleasant memories, future possibilities, and present painful experiences in an attempt to cover it with positive thoughts, instead of facing it, “as a result of attempting to forget only what is unpleasant, most people have a conception of oblivion as an untameable force which drowns out the past” (S.Kierkegaard, Either/or); if we want to remove things in our life for some better changes, we can only eliminate them insofar by identifying or reflecting what are these negatives, and in doing so, we have to think in terms of negatives from these inner negatives [in us]. Just like the rules in math, if we want an increasing positive product or a separation from our former specific negative causes, it can only be possible through employing a negation of itself; yet, one must understand that after overcoming there will be another struggle (more developed) that always awaits in front of us. Therefore, it is apparent that everything we’ve ever done, we’re going to do it over again — circular perpetual motion– and this direction helps us to better understand ourselves, to strengthen our psyche, and to grow more intellectually.