RE: Having a Positive Attitude in Life... to Excess?
Hey denmarkguy , nice to see a post like this , mostly because I know exactly what you mean , and you summed it up quite nicely.
I remember a while back a 'positive' person made a post about negative people and I had to reply because it seemed this person , I think anyway , was trying to point out the importance of positive thinking and a positive attitude , which I don't disagree with and in the end yeah sometimes it is important to have a positive outlook / attitude. But in the end the post seemed to push positive thinking so much as to suggest that the negative didn't exist (Avoiding Reality ... check) ....
Honestly I think it may be even a bit delusional to try and force oneself to be positive all the time. I would suggest that life / nature / reality is made up of both positive and negative ... and if you decide to pretend one side doesn't exist ...you would be only be seeing half (or part) of reality.
And to answer your question ... I would say more along the lines of mental trickery due to said person not being able to deal with the negative ... is that good or bad ... I guess it really depends on the situation.
Which is where people go over the edge into a state of UN-reality, in my perception.
I did a lot of reading on the whole "positive affirmations" idea, some years back... and whereas these practices can work to a degree they ultimately collide with our own "inner wisdom." Regardless of what we may tell ourselves, we have the wisdom to know when something is "positive" and "negative." Looking in the mirror and telling yourself "it's a perfect day!" when your dog just died? There's a cognitive disconnect from reality there... and it'll most likely catch up with you at some inopportune moment.