Reddit mentions of The Power of Positive Thinking

I think it is important to be a bit more clear. There is a difference between Col 3:2 (Setting your affections on the things above) or Philippians 4:8 (what ever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is... think on these things) and what you are describing. What you are describing is the “power of positive thinking”. In one case, positive thinking tries to make us be or feel better by changing the way we think. In the biblical case, changing our mind transforms us from glory to glory. In positive thinking, it is about what makes us feel or be better, in the biblical case we worship and glorify our God. In positive thinking we narcissistically put the emphasis on us, in the biblical case we focus on our Creator and all glory and honor is his.

This might sound nit picky, but I think it is important to make this distinction that the secular world and its atheistic or even spiritualistic mindset sees as self help. This differs in goal. The secular goal is about me, the Christian goal in changing the way we think is about God.

First and foremost, if you are ever, EVER feeling suicidal, please reach out to somebody:

• Call +45 70 201 201
  
• Visit http://www.livslinien.dk/
  
• Speak with your parents (trust them, tell them how you feel)
  
• Speak with literally anybody. A friend, the police, anyone
  
  Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. I've been there. I'm there frequently. A lot of us are. A lot of people who seem to have amazing lives and tons of friends are feeling just as much pain and loneliness as you. You are not alone. Sometimes it can feel like no one cares. Yes, lots of people are selfish and/or busy with their own stuff, but people do care.
  
  Know that your situation will change. Everything changes. Everything passes. You're feeling crappy right now, but hold on. Be strong. Be brave. Make some changes. If you do, you might blink and it be six months from now and you're having an amazing time in your acting classes, hanging out with a few people you really love spending time with, have forgotten all about your ex, etc. Everything passes. Bad times pass, so try to just ride the wave, roll with the punches, and know things will get better. But also good times pass. So when you're doing something you enjoy, or spending time with someone you care about, try really hard to be present and appreciate every moment, every detail. That's the beauty of life. It's transient. Nothing is permanent. Our species is not permanent. Our world is not permanent. It's a ride. It's a game. It's whatever metaphor you choose, but the point is things go up and down and round and round and in the end nothing really matters other than the fact that we have the gift of the present moment and the ability to try and enjoy little things here and there.
  
  I know you mentioned having seen a therapist and it did nothing. Hopefully that was just that one therapist. Sometimes it takes trying a couple months with a couple different therapists before you find someone who you really like. You just have to be open, honest, and trust that they are there to listen to you and there to help you. And give them time. There are very few quick fixes in life.
  
  There are things you can do for yourself, too. Things that will have a huge impact on your happiness, contentment, confidence, loneliness, motivation, etc. Most of the below is scientifically proven to help a lot. You don't have to do all of this at once, and you don't have to be an expert at all of this all at once. The important thing is to try. Bit by bit. Each day try one new thing on this list, and try to make a habit of it. Do it at that time, every day. Start small, with easier things, like doing stuff for 5 minutes, then next week up it to 10 minutes, and so on:
  
  
• Exercise: force yourself to go for a 20-30 minute walk every morning, as soon as you get up. It will be hard at first, but you'll start feeling a bit better every single time. Start mixing things up, depending on where you live and what you have accessible to you, try one day doing your walk, one day going for a cycle, one day a swim, one day run instead of walk, etc.
  
• Eat right: Self explanatory. Minimize alcohol. Minimize caffeine. Minimize sugar. Minimize pre-packaged/processed foods. Minimize/skip recreational drugs. Increase the amount of healthy stuff you eat. More veggies (fresh/frozen, cooked/raw, mix it up!), things like eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, etc. You'll find that the more you start changing this stuff, bit by bit each day, the more your body will crave it. When added to the exercise, you'll start massively craving good foods You'll finish a run and want nothing more than to chug a glass of water and eat a banana.
  
• Meditation: Meditation is amazingly powerful, just like exercise. The gist is that it teaches you to be very present. When we're going over stuff that's in the past (an ex girlfriend, or what someone said to you, or whatever), we're wasting energy on things we can't do anything about, because they already happened. Same goes for worrying about or thinking about stuff in future. We can only ever play the hand we're dealt. And that involves only being able to do stuff RIGHT NOW. In this moment. Being present will massively help you keep relaxed, de-stressed, less anxious, and it will also help you enjoy things. Like when you're having breakfast or eating a snack you like, you won't blink and realize it's gone and you spent the whole time eating it but thinking about other stuff. Instead, you'll be present, in that moment, enjoying that food or drink 100%. You'll savor every bit. I hugely recommend getting an app like Calm or Headspace. Both have free trials for anywhere from a week to a few weeks. There's also a bunch of completely free meditation apps and youtube videos and things. These guided meditations help a lot because you don't have to look up "how to meditate" or whatever, you just sit comfortable somewhere quiet, put a pair of headphones on, and relax. If you practice this every day, first thing in the morning, and make a habit of it like brushing your teeth (or brushing your mind!), you'll notice a huge difference. It will help you calm any negative voices in your head and know that those thoughts will still pop into your mind now and then, and that's ok. You just let them drift past, instead of giving them any attention. Meditation is amazing. Try it for a couple of months!
  
• Socializing: Humans are social creatures. We need to chat with other people in order to feel good. You said you're starting some classes next week. GOOD. Be brave, and reach out to make friends with the people you're in class with. Try and arrange to meet up with people after class to talk about what happened in class, and get to know each other. Organize getting together to work on scenes or exercises together and watch movies, go to plays together, and go get a cup of tea after and talk about them together. Also, try chatting to strangers more. Be brave. Ask someone about the book they're reading, if they've read other stuff by that author, do they recommend it? Take an interest in people, if you introduce yourselves then remember their name (and use it!). Be attentive to what they say and ask them questions. If they talk about something, ask how long they've been doing it, what they like about it, etc. Ask about it as if you're an actor researching a role where you need to know about or do that thing. A lot of people aren't used to this kind of contact and will kind of close down a bit. But try! But you'll be surprised, sometimes you'll have lovely 2 minute chats with people, and you might learn something. And for anyone who you're friends with who doesn't live in Copenhagen, reach out to them! Google Hangout is free and a great way to keep in touch with people. Use that or Skype or Facetime or something, and have little 15 minute or hour-long catch-ups with people you care about. All of this stuff will make a world of difference in terms of how connected you feel to people and how lonely you feel.
  
• Reading: Minimizing your electronic device usage in bed will help you sleep better. Reading is a wonderful way to relax you in the evening. Take 30-60 minutes every night as the last thing you do before drifting off, to jump into a book. Try some novels that are in genres you like, try some novels that are in genres you don't like but that people rave about. Classics. Modern award winners. Novels engage your brain in a different way to other types of stimulation. They also make you more empathetic and emotionally connected. You can also switch off between a novel and something like this or [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-What-Life-Business-ebook/dp/B0055PGUYU#nav-subnav), which are amazing books that will help you a lot on your journey to getting more out of your life and feeling better about things.
  
  All of the above should be the priority here. Your health is #1. If you look after yourself emotionally and physically, you'll be way better set up to deal with all the BS in life and enjoy yourself and form and maintain good relationships with people, and to be motivated and energized about working on acting (or anything else).
  
  Acting is amazing. But it's very fucking hard. For most actors, it's a tough lifestyle. To pursue it, you have to be cool to roll with the fact that most of the time it's hard work. It is a job. You have to work at it. Actors get rejected all the time. It's part of the job. You have to work hard to be in a good spot emotionally and physically in order to help deal with that. So, like I said, for now, it may be worth putting a lot of energy into that stuff.
  
  I hope some of this is helpful. Sending you love and good vibes from the other side of the world. xxxx

I'm going to recommend a book to you that helped me. I read it & took notes, & I review them about once every week.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Faith is a powerful tool to help control stress & anxiety, especially if that is something you've never been exposed to during your life.

You need to dive into other outside interests to fill the time that was spent exercising. & realize that some amount of grief is normal & don't beat yourself up about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Thinking-Norman-Vincent/dp/0743234804/ref=asc_df_0743234804_nodl/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312025907670&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6499292603643077027&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008136&hvtargid=pla-435163923069&psc=1

book that explains the concept JP is talking about here:


https://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Thinking-Norman-Vincent/dp/0743234804/ref=nodl_

I’ve seen a 20 page summary version before, can’t find it.

You can probably find a free pdf online,

TIL : Providing resources to better understand the game is useless.

Welp, have fun in bronze. From your attitude I can tell without a doubt you 100% deserve to be there.

Instead of using those LoL rescources I highly suggest checking out this because it's 100% where you need to start.

Depends on how old you are.

• Middle school: I really enjoyed this, this, and this, but I don't think I can read those books now (29) without cringing a little bit. Especially, Getting Things Done because I already know how to make to do list, but I still flip through all 3 books occastionally.
  
  
• High school: I really enjoyed this, this, and this, but if you're a well adjusted human and responsible adult, then I don't think you'll find a lot of helpful advice from these 6 books so far because it'll be pretty basic information.
  
  
• College: I really enjoyed this, this, and started doing Malcolm Gladwell books. The checklist book helped me get more organized and So Good They Can't Ignore You was helpful starting my career path.
  
• Graduate School: I really enjoyed this, this, and this. I already stopped with most "self help" books and reading more about how to manage my money or books that looked interesting like Stiff.
  
  
• Currently: I'm working on this, this, and this. Now I'm reading mostly for fun, but all three of these books are way out of my league and I have no idea what their talking about, but they're areas of my interest. History and AI.

So I used several items when I first started:


https://grokker.com/mind/expert/alister-gray/57fcc1dcc179d39938867c73


I really liked this coach (and remember, the coach is everything when first starting out). I used this as a beginner step and then took some more full courses with him. There are also several apps I recommend as well to get started:


https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stop-breathe-think/id778848692

​

https://www.headspace.com/headspace-meditation-app


Here are some books I also recommend:


https://www.amazon.com/Power-Positive-Thinking-Norman-Vincent/dp/0743234804


https://www.amazon.com/Way-Zen-Alan-W-Watts/dp/0375705104/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+way+of+zen&qid=1563019780&s=books&sr=1-2


This one is for once you clear your conscious and start to interact with others:


https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034/ref=sr_1_3?crid=22WVROTLAUEQU&keywords=how+to+win+friends+and+influence+people+by+dale+carnegie&qid=1563019812&s=books&sprefix=how+to+win%2Cstripbooks%2C189&sr=1-3



Hope it helps. It really depends on who you vibe with as a coach.