‘The Power Of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale’ book review.
I read this book at the beginning of the year as I was going through a bad time and had lots of negative thoughts in my mind and wanted to read something that can change my mind, lighten my mood or at least I can have some peace with my self / in my mind. So did it help? Let’s find.
“BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!”
This is how he starts the book. the sentence itself has lots of inspiration embedded primitively. it’s the key concept to understand and believe when you are doing self-help therapy. you need to start believing your self and afterward start working on your dreams.
The book was originally published in 1952 targetting the American audience as they were going through heavy industrialization and world war hangover. they were hit by mental stress wave as most of the people were going through depression and suffered chronic insomnia and since India is witnessing heavy industrialization post-economic reform. The book has become so relevant to today's India and it’s rapidly changing lifestyle.
Norman suggests practical methods to fight a different type of modern problems that came as a byproduct of industrialization and modern lifestyle. the book has a separate chapter for different problems and different types of solutions that can be practiced when you are going through that particular situation. it suggests 2 types of solutions for every situation, therapeutic practice on the basis of positive thinking and spiritual help from the bible.
At the end of every chapter, he summarised the key takeaways of the chapters in bullet points which can be summarised and practiced which are based on positive thinking and spiritual aspect of the bible. he suggests god [to be specific Jesus] as a lander of the last resort for hope and power to help yourself. that you can find all your answers through the bible. I found positive thinking helpful but at the same time, frequent and over-exaggerated mention of Jesus was annoying to me, a non-christian reader. I wouldn’t have minded little mention of the bible and it plasms but a mention of it on every other page wasn’t helpful but rather annoying. I think a revised version of the book with more use of the word god instead of Jesus would librate the book, would make it less of a missionary book and acceptable to people of every religion and serve its true purpose of the title ‘The Power Of Positive Thinking’.it is miss leading for the person choosing the book to read. In the current scenario the title ‘The power of the holy bible and positive thinking’ would have made more sense. albite if someone dares to mix Norman’s positive thinking and wisdom of Veda/Gita will make more sense to Indian people and market
Inspire of that littles inconvenience if you menages to ignore or go along with it, will definitely help fight the situation. I want to mention it again that it is not the book you read only once but rather read a different chapter in a particular situation and follow the description as if the doctor suggested the medication. I have made a list for my personal future use which might be helpful for readers, rest advocates the obvious which name suggests.
Norman also describes every concept with real-life anecdotes of peoples who followed the advice and succeed or some wise person suggested to him as he was a motivational speaker of the time.
I am definitely suggesting you to buy a physical copy of the book as one will definitely like to read it again. so it is advisable to personalize the book, highlight quotes that are relatable to you or mark anecdote you like to read again.
I don’t want to give away much of the content of the book but still would like to mention some of my favourite quotes here.
“A sense of inferiority and inadequacy interferes with the attainment of your hopes, but self-confidence leads to self-realization and successful achievement”
“A person’s life is what his thoughts make of it, ow we think we feel has a definite effect on how we actually feel physically”
“Do not build up obstacles in your imagination. depreciate every so-called obstacle. minimize them. difficulties must be studied and efficiently dealt with to be eliminated, but they must be seen for only what they are. They must not be inflated by fear thoughts.”
Never participate in a worry conversation. shoot an injection of faith into all your conversation. a group of people talking pessimistically can infect every person in the group with negativism. but by talking things up rather than down you can drive off that depressing atmosphere and make everyone feel hopeful and happy.
The book is a must and early read for people starting to read the genre of personal growth and self-help.
P.S.:- I would have got annoyed by the similar frequent mention of Hindu gods and goddesses as I was looking for a nonreligious self-helping book. wisdom from any religion is welcomed.
