Principles of positive thinking:

1. The foundation of positive thinking is to have self-respect and to be contented.

2. Self-respect in positive thinking means to be assertive and to set boundaries about what is acceptable and what is not.

3. The aim of positive thinking is to reach a stage of neutrality where your mind is purely positive because your thoughts are completely free from the opposition or resistance of negativity.

4. Positive thinking is about seeing the negative for what it is and thereby neutralizing its power over you. If you don’t identify the negativity clearly, then you are influenced by it.

5. Positive thinking is the consistent refusal to engage in projection. That means to refuse to project onto others the lures and entrapments of negative which lurk in your inner world. It also means that you refrain from seeing the world through rose coloured glasses and getting dazzled and impressed. Projection distorts your perception and skews your vision of the world.

6. Positive thinking is to be free from worrying about others.

7. Positive thinking is to develop an attitude of enlightened self interest. This is the opposite of selfishness. It means to come to terms with yourself and not be deceived by your own weaknesses.

8. Spirituality identifies you as a pure, peaceful, powerful jewel in the heart of God. Positive thinking is to respect yourself by refusing to adopt some one else’s negative vision of you. In this way you also avoid the powerful negative force of self-doubt.

9. A positive thought is produced in the face of many things that are negative. Sustained positive thoughts lead to neutrality. A neutral thought is produced when there is no further negativity to contend with.

10. Self-respect means that you consider it inappropriate to criticize others. You consider it cowardly to feel threatened by someone else. You view everyone as responsible for their own behaviour.

11. Self-respect is to affirm that you are a pure and peaceful soul. From this spiritual sense of identity you resist prerogative thoughts about your personal value and integrity from within and from without.

12. Self-respect implies self-confidence. You maintain regard for yourself independently of praise or defamation, success or failure. You maintain an attitude of love, peace, faith, courage, perseverance, enthusiasm and happiness.

13. Your contentment allows you to have a large heart, magnanimous feelings towards others and a comfortable relationship with the social environment, free from fear.

14. Respecting yourself gives you the power to discern, when someone wants you to buy you into a lie: but you don’t.

15. A positive thinker has a personal ethical policy of honesty. This ensures that the faculties of intuition and perception are reliable. An honest person can detect when someone is lying. You have regard for your discernment and therefore are hard to deceive. At the same time of deception the other’s effort will be to persuade you to disregard what you know don’t exist.

16. You are not deceived by things that you feel positive but are in fact negative. Negativity is subtle and invisible. It occurs both within the self ad through other people. Your thoughts of contentment are not based on appearances.

17. Positive thinking is independent thinking based on higher principles and values. It is not a reaction to appearances or being dependent on people, places ad things being as you expect.

18. Thinking a positive thought in a simplistic way is a form of denial because it ignores the web of negativity and the selfish motives of others around you. Unless you discern others selfish motives, you will get duped.