You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) [Hardcover]

Peter McWilliams (Author)

Book Description

Series: Life 101 Series | Publication Date: April 1997

New price, new look and new format for this bestselling pop psychology classic. You Can't Afford The Luxury of a Negative Thought is an upbeat, accesible book about the power of positive thought -- and about how negative thinking can wreck lives. Negative thinking is seen as a debilitating illness that will slowly kill your spirit -- and for some people lead to actual physical disease. Happily though, this is not a doom-filled book at all! The authors show how to: Eliminate The Negative -- spend less time thinking 'down' and negative thoughts. / Accentuate The Positive -- spend more time focussing on the positive things in your life. / Latch On To The Affirmative -- enjoy each moment! Packed full of inspirational, funny, and moving quotes. This book was written in part specially for those who have been diagnosed with severe illness. Negative thinking drags you down -- whilst a truly positive approach will have a positive effect on your whole self -- thus promoting good physical health. Though this book is a terrific inspirational read for anyone looking to recover health, it's essentially a big book about positive thinking and is certainly not limited to an 'ill' market!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The authors have written a string of bestselling inspirational books. Peter McWilliams is a leading US voice in personal development. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 613 pages
• Publisher: Prelude Press (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0931580579
• ISBN-13: 978-0931580574
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll Love It..., May 5, 2000

By 

yygsgsdrassil "yygsgsdrassil" (Crossroads America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) (Hardcover)

...if you are like me, you get tired of feeling terrible about yourself. "What have I done to feel this blue, why do I deserve this treatment, how come I feel like I'm a magnet for all the bad things that could happen to a person..." I would ask myself many a time. Life truly is not worth feeling rotten about, especially if you had not done anything to feel rotten about. I've discovered that I was feeling bad because I either had not or could not meet somebody else's standards. And believe me, no matter what I've done, like take out the trash, for instance, there was someone who let me know how inadequate the job I did was...I was a hopeless sap. Then there is the entire matter of some people needing to feel like they have bested me just cause that's how things are...Church did not help me because it seemed to me that it was filled with the self same people I was trying to avoid. (Church folk can really make you feel bad, you know?) So instead of changing them, I decided I would change myself and my own attitudes. I tripped upon the book browsing at a local mall. The title caught my eye and I grabbed it and raced for the checkout. It is an easy to read, easy to digest book of 600 some pages. The left page side of the book has one or two applicable quotes of any one from like Kermit the Frog to important hifalootin philosophers like Goethe. If the reader just wants to flip through these qoutes like a daily affirmation, he could do so...John-Roger and Peter on the right hand side of the book gives the reader the why's, the when's, and the how's of negative thoughts and how to not focus on them...it is something that has helped me a lot and I hope the reader will find it is helpful, too...

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking, January 26, 2006

By 

Venus A. Rachal (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) (Paperback)

I write and work in metaphysics so I've read all kinds of new thought books about positive thinking and affirmations. What I like about this book is that it is very honest about dealing with negative emotions. We all have them and you can't put a band-aid on them by just thinking up an affirmation that is the exact opposite to a negative thought. In my own life, I have had difficulty with these kinds of affirmations. You have to be able to believe the affirmation and if your subconscious mind is fighting what you are saying, you're not going to get very far.

You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought advises you to just become aware of your thoughts and to slowly train yourself to pause before reacting to a negative situation. You can acknowledge a negative experience, but they remind you that you have a choice as to how you REACT to that negative event. We can't go through life just saying "Everything is Great!" and ignoring problems and negative sitations. These things exist for a reason. Otherwise, we'd all live in a utopian society and not experience negativity in the first place. Our power lies in the choices we make every day about how we will respond to things that happen to us.

I generally think of myself as a positive person, but when I began to focus on the suggestions in this book, I realized how many times in a day I become fearful when I face a negative or uncertain situation. Using the process of this book was freeing for me because it reminded me that I do not have to do what I've always done just because it is familiar to me. While some situations are extremely difficult to postpone reacting to, if you can free up your energy from reacting to small irritations, you use less of the energy that your body needs for situations that are REALLY stressful. The point is not to never react negatively ever again. The point is to not waste energy every day on little things that we have no control over. Save your energy for times when you will really need it.

This book is particularly geared for those facing life-threatening illnesses such as cancer or AIDS. It gives you tools to shift your energy and regain your sense of control. The book delicately suggests that some readers may have chosen death for a reason (whether positively or negatively) and that the purpose of the book is to let go of the stress and negativity which may be exacerbating the illness. In some cases, this can bring about an intense desire to live and provide the body with energy and resources needed to heal itself. In other cases, it brings a greater sense of peace about accepting death.

If you are in good physical health, there is still benefit from this book. It works as a magnifying glass on your mental and emotional selves so that you can acheive greater balance and personal satisfaction.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Common sense in a new light, August 10, 2002

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought (The Life 101 Series) (Paperback)

This excellent book is divided into 2 parts: The disease and the cure, and the latter consists of 3 sections: Accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative and Latch onto the affirmative. It explains the fight or flight response, the effect thoughts have on the body, and the question of death. It also deals with mourning, how to focus on the positive and has a useful section on depression. Suitable quotes by inter alia Freud, Santayana, Voltaire, Emerson, Russell, Shaw, Anais Nin, Epicurus, Whitman, Keller, Hippocrates, Oscar Wilde and Maria Montessori enhance the text and help to explain things. I would not say that it is absolutely the best self-help book I've ever read ( a little more emphasis on how to influence the subconscious mind would have been valuable), but it casts welcome new light on this thing called "common sense." It is a pleasure to read and I highly recommend it.