I dubbed The Golden Dragon (this blog) a blog about change for a reason. Every single one of my articles tries to impact my readers in a way that will make something change: a habit, a way of thinking, a perspective. This time, I want to convince you that having negative thoughts isn't a bad thing at all. Quite the contrary, they can be really useful. Moreover, I want to make the case that positive thinking has become somewhat of a cult lately. And you shouldn't feel bad for not being a part of it. You aren't alone. You aren't crazy. You aren't weird. You are a normal human being going through normal life experiences.

For most of my life, people around me have defaulted to a positive mindset as the defacto way of going about life. This is understandable. But positivity and negativity each have both advantages and disadvantages. Marrying one will always leave something on the table. Having the right balance of positivity and negativity is best. Knowing exactly how negative and how positive to be is hard. But this doesn't mean that it isn't the best. People choose to marry positivity because:

1. It's easier
2. It's what most other people do

Most people marry positivity with the following axiom unconsciously in mind:

A positive mindset leads to a happier life

This axiom is rarely (if ever challenged). I'm here to tell you that (paradoxically):

Negative thoughts can lead to a happier life

Why Do I Say That Negativity Has Advantages?

Every single one of our (unconscious) behaviors can be justified from an evolutionary standpoint. Being negative (depressive in its most extreme form) can be justified the same way as disgust: It helps you stay alive. Dr. K agrees with this in the following video. However, he doesn't explain quite clearly how depression can do this.

Now, I know... how can depression help us stay alive if we are all statistically almost two times more likely to kill ourselves than to have other humans kill us? That's a great question. So far, the best answer I've been able to find is that depression is some sort of hibernated state (according to the above video on depression). As mentioned in the video:

Is it worthwile for an animal to actively try to cope with winter? Or to withdraw, to sleep more, to not see the value of going outside and doing anything?

And clearly, no matter what you do you can't fight winter, right? The best thing is to conserve your energy, ride it out...

And so when you think about depression, it comes with this low energy, it comes with this hopelessness, this discounting of effort, this lack of motivation, to go seek things.

The truth is we have still yet much to understand about the reason behind depression. Do hibernating bears feel psychic pain? Likely not. Then why does depression make us go through agony?

Still, it's very hard to find a counterargument to depression as an evolutionary success. Isn't it fascinating how humans even came to adopt a negative mindset to begin with? If it was always a lose-lose situation, why is it still prevalent to this day and age? Provided you don't have too much negative thinking, you are fine and should leverage your negative thoughts to get a better life.

How Do You Know When You've Had Too Much Negativity?

When you fantasize about the actual steps you'd take to end your own life. That's when you clearly have had too much negativity. As mentioned by Dr. Jordan Peterson, that's how you can tell that someone is very serious about committing suicide.

If you get to this point, tell it to the person closest to you who cares. And if you don't have someone like that, go to a hospital and tell someone there. As pointed out by Dr. Peterson: "Suicide is the one thing that you can always leave for tomorrow".

How Exactly Are Negative Thoughts Useful?

They help you avoid unnecessary suffering. Here are some common situations where being negative can help you avoid a good amount of pain and suffering:

• You assume that your next exam will be the most difficult one yet. You study your ass off. You don't ace the exam, but you don't fail either. You should be grateful that your negative emotions pushed you to study the way they did. You are now one step closer to getting your degree.
• You get a phone call. You immediately assume that whoever is on the other side is not who they claim to be. The call ends up being inconsequential. Your blood pressure sure spiked a bit. But you get to sleep well tonight knowing that you didn't share any sensitive data with a stranger.
• You are on public transport and you notice that a couple of mean-looking individuals get aboard. Something in your gut tells you a mugging is about to take place. For a second you feel shame. Are you sure these people aren't just trying to express their individuality with their appearance? You end up deciding you don't care and get off transport as soon as possible. You don't mind paying twice the fare. Avoiding such a bad experience was well worth it.

Most traits in the negative spectrum have a bad reputation. And there's definitely a big skew in favor of a positive mindset. Even when doing the research for this article, I searched YouTube with... "benefits of a negative mindset" and the first 3 videos dealt literally with the opposite: "How to combat negative thoughts". Only the 4th video had arguments in favor of negative thinking. I challenge you to find a video covering the benefits of negative thinking with more than ~25k views. On the other hand, you don't have to try very hard to find videos about positivity with millions upon millions of views.

I think the axiom behind the cult of positivity is people (mistakenly) think that acknowledging the benefits of negative thinking will cause more people to be negative. And that already negative people would become even more negative. This, in turn, would bring about an increase in suicide rates. This couldn't be further from the truth:

• Negative people will be negative no matter what. We don't control our genes. We can't control every single aspect of our bodies and minds. You can't tell your heart to stop beating. You can't tell your mind to have pleasant dreams.
• There's nothing wrong with being a predominantly negative person. Negativity is here to avoid suffering. In this manner, being negative leads to a happier life than being positive.
• Pretending that people should always have positive thoughts only makes things worse for people with negative thoughts. If positive thoughts are the norm, then something must be wrong with me.

Some people have even got angry at me for exposing a negative point of view. People feel like expressing negative thoughts brings everybody down. They get angry because they feel like you are pulling them down in an ocean of suffering. They rather you "drown" alone and so they "kick" you with disdain when your negativity brings them back to the basic reality of life: Suffering.

I used to feel bad about myself for being an introverted person. But with time I've come to realize that I was just a fish trying to climb a tree. I really wanted to reference one of Dr. Jordan Peterson's video where he talks about the strengths of each trait in the Big 5 Personality model. In this video, I remember Peterson saying something along the lines of...

"Every personality trait has its advantages and disadvantages. People often interpret introversion as a net loss. After all, introverted children are more likely to hide behind their mother's skirt when encountering something new, like say a dog. And ain't they missing a new experience? Aren't they falling behind compared to their extroverted peers? Well... yeah. But you know what? Introverted children don't get bitten by dogs".

Tell that to me, who actually got bit by a dog in the face when I was ~4 years old IIRC. That sure made me more introverted.

Prescription

The next time you are having negative thoughts, don't feel bad. Instead, be grateful that your mind is healthily trying to avoid suffering. There's a good chance that it's doing a good job. Just try to push yourself to the most amount of failure you can tolerate, despite your negative thoughts telling you it's not worth it. Underpromising and overdelivering is a great recipe for happiness.

The next time you find yourself in the middle of the cult of toxic positivity, remember: You are not weird, wrong, or a bad person for having negative thoughts. You are a normal human being, whose negativity is a product of millions of years of evolution. You are not trying to bring anybody down. You are just trying to stay realistic while doing the best with what you've got. Share this article with your positive colleagues next time they stubbornly try to convince you that there's no point in thinking the way you do :)

---

Thank you for reading today's post! As always, If you find my articles valuable and you'd like to support me, you can do so by...

• Donating via Paypal
• Referring your friends and family to this blog so they may subscribe

Have a great week ahead!