Tag: philosophy

• January 30, 2026

  How Did You Sleep?

  Innocent questions can be loaded guns. When a loved one asks you, “How did you sleep last night?,” don’t dig in and say, “Oh, you know, I slept all right. I fell asleep easily, but in the middle of the night my mind was racing. I fell back asleep ultimately but I feel a bit…
• January 29, 2026

  How To Actually ‘Do’ Positive Thinking

  Let’s suppose that, upon reading the recent spate of posts on positive or right thinking, you’re willing to throw your hat in the ring. Great. Your next question is: “How?” Here’s a clean method: S1: You’ll need to up your introspective game because you first have to label a thought a “negative thought.” Your best…
• January 28, 2026

  Is Right Thinking Just Pollyannaism?

  The Pollyanna objection to “thought power” has been, I trust, on your mind since you’ve been reading the last series of posts. The thought power thesis states that positive thinking is more powerful and truer than negative thinking, and it doesn’t flinch with regard to the twin implications. One, your life is “the product” of…
• January 27, 2026

  Can ‘My’ Thoughts Hurt You?

  What might be our standard picture of thought? And what, indeed, might be wrong with this picture? I see three basic propositions: In Thought Power, Sivananda (it can be surmised) takes all three propositions to be false. What would be his counters? If this new, albeit quite unorthodox picture of thinking is correct, then it…
• January 27, 2026

  Do Thoughts Shape My Destiny?

  What if we were to take very seriously the formative character of thinking? Could this be one way of understanding “thought power”? Thoughts, Sivananda states in Thought Power, beget habits (“grooves”); habits beget character; and character begets destiny (let’s say: the course of a life). Could he be on to something? Nobody denies that someone…