The Power of Positive Thinking

During the Korean war, American prisoners were demoralized and beaten down, but not through physical punishment or abuse, as you might imagine. The Koreans used the power of negativity, and it literally killed many prisoners. They would have each prisoner stand and tell everything they had done wrong in their lives. Mistakes, failures, bad luck, anything negative to dwell on. They were rewarded for telling on each other when a fellow prisoner made a mistake. Prisoners were forwarded all mail that would demoralize them, foreclosure notices, divorce papers, even past due bills. The negative energy became so strong that prisoners would give up. One by one, soldiers would be found curled up in a ball alone, dead. This is the power of negative energy.

I have been caught up in another teacher's negative emotions, it's hard not to, especially when you are facing the same challenges. How can we beat negative energy? POSITIVE ENERGY, of course. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I found a book called Remembering Wholeness by Carol Tuttle. This book has reminded me of the power of positive energy. I have been able to take many ideas from her book and paste it into my classroom.

I have one student who is going through a hard time. He has been a favorite student of mine, so I can tell that things are different for him somehow, I just can't tell what. He doesn't want to open up to me, he resents my asking, or trying to help, and he even sent his friend into my classroom when he forgot something, he told his friend that I hate him! Wow, I thought. That's how my efforts have been translated. This kid has so much negativity surrounding him that even love is translated into hate. What can I do?

I took an idea from Remembering Wholeness and I sent him love. You know when you are thinking about someone that you love, like your children, when they are sleeping? I threw a huge ball of positive love energy at him, and the whole class, for that matter. It even came out a little later when the class was trying their hardest to get out of doing an assignment, rather than getting frustrated (something I usually NEVER do) the words "I love you guys" just fell out of my mouth, like gum, plop. I was smiling at them, they gave up, laughed at themselves and got to work.

Positive energy can change people. It changes me, it changes the mood in my classroom, it can reach kids that you don't know how to reach otherwise. Check out the book Remembering Wholeness, it will be worth your time.