Aung Aye (Yangon University) - Working with a positive attitude

Chapter (1)

Besides thinking positively,

"Even if you're on the right track, you can't just sit around and do nothing. You have to make an effort."

- Arthur Godfrey

"Thinking positively is a cruel deception."

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read the above line in a letter addressed to "Dr. Fox" and "Barry." Some people say that "positive thinking" is a thing of the 1960s. Others think that "positive thinking" is good, but it doesn't really affect our health and well-being. Most people, however, accept that our thoughts have a powerful influence on our health and well-being. We've never heard of "positive thinking being a cruel hoax."

It is widely accepted, and supported by scientific research, that there is a strong connection between the mind and the body, and that there is a reciprocal effect. Medical science, which has been around for decades, has also discovered connections between our thoughts and our immune system, blood chemistry, heart, and other body parts. Barry and I have written about the connection between positive thinking and our immune systems, our hearts, our cholesterol, our health, and our lives. It is widely accepted.

The Reverend Norman Vincent Peale, known as the “Father of Positive Thinking,” wrote the foreword to our book “Awake.” Chapters from the book were published in his magazine “Positive Thinking Plus.” An article titled “Believe” asked the question, “Can faith restore your health and make you a successful person who lives a happy life?” The answer is yes. You even dare to say that it can.

Dr. " Pelle" and I were proud that our book was featured in his magazine. We received many letters of appreciation from readers. A woman who was discharged from the hospital in Minnesota said that she was discharged from the hospital because of "thought medicine." While we were still proud of our work, we received a letter from a woman in France.

Dear Dr. Arnold and Barry Fox,

I have read your article "Believe" and your book "Awake."

I used to be a big believer in "thinking positively." Now I realize that's a lie. Can you do what you think? If you believe it will happen, it will happen. "Thinking positively" is no different from Dr. Ramkus and his healing methods. Dr. Ramkus go door to door and give healing treatments, and then they just run away from town and disappear.

I have been pregnant five times. Each pregnancy has failed. The last pregnancy, a doctor gave me a new treatment. I really believed in the treatment. I believed that this time I would get pregnant. I believed in it with all my heart. But I was wrong. Thinking positively is useless. Thinking positively is a cruel deception. I would like you to reconsider your advice about thinking positively.

I immediately showed the letter to Barry, the third of my seven children. After reading it, Barry agreed. He said we needed to rethink our recommendation about “thinking positively.” “This is important,” he said. We want everyone to be positive thinkers. But sometimes we can’t fully express that desire.

Sugar pack trust

Most of us accept that negative thoughts can lead to physical illness and emotional distress. So what about positive thinking? Can positive thinking counteract negative thinking? Can positive thinking alone improve our physical and mental health? Can positive thinking increase our bank balance? The answer is sometimes a resounding “yes.”

We can prove that positive thinking is one of the most powerful forces in the human body. We will see many exciting studies later that show the connection between our thoughts and our immune system, our heart, our hormones, our cholesterol levels, and so on. Now, let's talk about the ineffective candy that our doctors use to test new drugs, which we call "pleasure pills." In a new drug test, the patients who will be tested are divided into groups and one group is given the real drug. The other group is given a "pleasure pill" that is made to look like the drug. The patients who are tested do not think it is candy, but the real drug.

When such studies are conducted, it is found that the real drugs tested sometimes cure diseases and sometimes do not. However, the "pleasure drug" sugar cane has a cure rate of about 30 percent. Sometimes it has a cure rate of up to 60 percent.

"The happy pill" is actually a candy. It is not a medicine, but patients think it is a medicine, so they get better. This is a "sugar-coated belief." Thousands of studies on such "happy pills" show that "thinking positively" is a powerful medicine.

Can positive thinking restore your health and make you a happier and more successful person? I urge you to answer boldly that there are circumstances in which it can happen. Let’s rethink our idea of ​​“positive thinking,” as Barry says. Let’s tell people that “positive thinking” is like fuel. Even if the fuel tank is full, it’s no use if we don’t drive the car or press the accelerator. Positive thinking motivates us to take action. Action brings our good thoughts to life. Think positively and we will do our job well.

Dancing on practical work,

A French woman who desperately wanted a child was frustrated with “thinking positively.” She believed in “thinking positively,” but she wondered if she had actually done the work. I called Jeff Steinburg, MD, FACOG, in Encino, California. He is a specialist in reproductive hormones and infertility. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Encino Fertility Center. I had known Jeff since I was a young man. His mother was an acquaintance of mine. Jeff is now a specialist in the national IVF program.

When I told him about the French woman's situation, he explained it to me.

“Arnold ... There are studies that keep coming out about women who have recurrent miscarriages, but they are wrong. We used to believe that miscarriages were caused by problems with the embryo, or by problems with the mother. `` Because of that belief, we couldn't prevent miscarriages. We found that the real problem was the interaction between the two types of tissue, the mother and the father. The father's tissue in the embryo sends a message to the pregnant mother that he has arrived. If that message is clear and unambiguous, the mother's immune system will tolerate the pregnancy. The mother's immune system will decide that the embryo is a foreign object that should not be attacked ...

.. In most women who have recurrent miscarriages, the father's tissue type is the same as the mother's, so the message is broken. When there is no message, the mother's immune system receives no instructions not to attack the newly arrived embryo as a foreign object. So the mother's immune system attacks the developing embryo as an enemy...

... For this problem, we create a trick in the father's sperm, so that, as I said, even though the tissue is the same, it looks different, so the mother's immune system thinks that the embryo is foreign and can't attack it. This trick is about 88 percent successful," he explained, sending me documents and evidence.

I made copies of these documents and sent them to the woman in France. I also advised her to have the copies read by her doctor in France. More than a year later, I received a photo from the woman. It was a photo of her, her husband, and their newborn daughter together.

In fact, this woman did not know that there was more to do than just think positively about wanting a child. Thinking positively is a profession, and doing it in practice is the tool to implement that profession. What she had to do was to constantly communicate with doctors who could help her have a child. She had to combine that with practical efforts. She decided that “thinking positively” was useless without making such efforts. Fortunately, when she sent us a letter about her decision, we wanted to solve it and when we solved it, she ended up having a child. I can say that she was lucky that we took the effort that she had not made.

“Thinking positively” is important. Absolutely. Without “thinking positively,” there can be no effort. The French woman mentioned above became frustrated because she stopped “thinking positively.” The reason she stopped thinking positively was because she didn’t see progress. If you want to see progress, you have to make an effort. You have to do it. You have to be persistent. Think positively, and then do the work well.

Doing over 9,000 things,

"Do the best you can with what you have, where you are."

- Theodore Roosevelt

Practical action can create miracles. In the summer of 1989, I was listening to a young man speak at a conference in Dallas, Texas, on the subject of “Practical Action and Courage.” His name was W. Mitchell. He had been taking flying lessons for several years. One day, he was riding his motorcycle home from the airport when he was hit by a truck. “Mitchell” was pinned under the overturned motorcycle, but he was not seriously injured. So, while he was thinking that he was fine, the motorcycle caught fire and set his whole body on fire. Luckily, a passing car stopped, and the driver got out with a fire extinguisher. “Mitchell” was able to put out the flames before he could burn to death. Emergency services arrived and took him to the hospital.

The pain of being burned is terrifying. I have seen burn patients writhing in agony on hospital beds.