You don't need positive thoughts, just presence.
If you're depressed or fearful it's generally because you're someplace else, the future or the past. To be fearful in the present is all but impossible, even in life threatening situations, because the fear arises out of thoughts about what's going to happen, rather than what's actually happening.
Positive thinking is often confused with optimism, ie everything is going to be ok. I'm suggesting that you accept that everything is already ok, just as it is. You often change your mind about a situation being good or bad much later, sometimes decades later, so is there really good and bad?
This is harder to accept when dealing with illness or death, but you always have something to be grateful for in the present and this is real positive thinking.
Here's a quote that may help with this...
Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.
Buddha
If you feel fearful come back to right now, and see if there's anything to be afraid of in this moment, the only moment that matters.
One more quote...
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
Mark Twain
[ January 02, 2009: Message edited by: Taariq San ]
