Quicklet on Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich

ABOUT THE BOOK

“The law of attraction is that our thinking creates and brings to us whatever we think about, it's as though every time we think a thought, every time we speak a word, the universe is listening and responding to us.” Louise Hay

With the rise of the positive thinking and positive psychology movement, many supposed “gurus” have emerged.Napoleon Hill wrote his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, in one of the most difficult times of America’s history (the Depression), and the book is still in circulation today.

Other promoters of positive thought run the gamut from Norman Vincent Peale to modern day pastors such as Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston, who preaches the new ‘Prosperity Gospel.’

We might ask ourselves, how can optimism hurt? Many of the people who follow these positive thought ideologies find themselves subjected to a regimen of self-hypnosis-like visualizations and verbalizations.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Coralie McCormick would really like to travel constantly. When she's not travelling, she's planning new trips, taking photographs, playing with my nephews, or writing. She have a day job that helps her pay the bills and a degree in Economics. She is also obsessed with Haruki Murakami novels and his 'words as pictures' style where sheep can talk, and you can always check yourself into the Dolphin Hotel when you need a break.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Going back to Ehrenreich’s ideal, breast cancer sufferers face an onerous battle for their very survival, full of trials and very real ordeals, and pain. The pressure is to assume a sunny demeanour, partly out of the concern of sparing their family and friends the real role they should be hoping to fulfill: that of supporting the person who is ill, rather than the other way around.

The pressure is on the person with cancer to radiate positivity because without this positivity, they believe they lower their chances of survival.. Imagine the pressure! Should their health take a turn for the worse, their burden trebles, as they only have themselves to blame, their attitude was not positive enough.

There are similarities in the job market, or in those facing mortgage foreclosures. According to the Law of Attraction, summed up in the quote at the beginning of this section, it is your thoughts which determine your future. No matter what circumstances dictate, a mortgage payment that is 133% of your actual income, or downsizing at your corporation, your fate is in your hands. Fate is never capricious…

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