I have met the powerful teacher of faith who taught that ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’ is indeed, faith. It was during a depressing, negative time in my life that I made the acquaintance of who Bill Clinton called an optimist and he said this of Peale:
“Dr. Peale was an optimist who believed that whatever the antagonisms and complexities of modern life brought us, that anyone could prevail by approaching life with a simple sense of faith.” Bill Clinton
I met Norman Vincent Peale when a man, who later became a good friend and mentor, introduced me by presenting me with the life changing book: ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’. At that time in my life I did not yet know I had Attention Deficit Disorder and my mind was a mess of self loathing and self defeatism. I felt so down and depressed, because, I did not understand myself and had lived through years of chastisements and punishments of sorts, for the ways I behaved. Having ADD is made significantly more difficult because we Adder’s look just as ‘equally’ capable as those who do not have LD or ADD. There was no consideration or understanding, from others, of living with undiagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder, complaints or struggles were given a ridiculing, insensitive “oh, poor Bryan” devoid of compassion or kindness.
Reading The Power of Positive Thinking taught me that it is not only healthy, but also necessary to believe in one’s self, to think positive and hold a firm confidence in one’s abilities and nature, no matter the circumstances that previously formed our thoughts. I learned that negative thinking draws more negatives into one’s life. This law of attraction which seems to work so well for negative thinking, also works equally as well for positive thinking. That’s not a secret to me anymore.
Reading the truthfully inspiring writings of Norman Vincent Peale created positive strength within my mind, body and soul. His words of faith in one’s self, touched me and helped me see the world in a new, exciting way—the air became fresher, the days became brighter and the night became like a warm, comfortable blanket which I wrapped around myself to sleep in peacefully.
“Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.”
Norman Vincent Peale
With my mind learning to reformat thoughts and finally, always finding the positive in any and all situations I started traveling on a higher, more profound road which eventually led me to seek help for my unexplainable behavior. I found liberation, oh so sweet freedom from self defeatism!
Positive Thinking is my anchor, my corner stone to being able to accomplish and achieve great things. When I finally found out, through diagnosis, that I had Attention Deficit Disorder, I did not fall and cry for myself, as I might have done in the past, instead I learned all I could about the Learning Disorder and found the positive attributes of ADD and excitingly discovered that, when understood and used properly with a positive, creative nature, ADD is indeed a precious gift of nature which should be nurtured and relished.
We Adders are blessed with minds of extraordinary capability, our minds have a creative nature and this allows us to envision great and wonderful things, and when we learn to do this with ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’, we draw fabulous things to us.
Peale said that as a youth he had “the worst inferiority complex of all.”
~Bryan
