to wish I'd known about this Positive Thinking malarkey years ago...

[PositiveToBe]

so my life would not have been so shit .

I have suffered the loss of a child, a failed emigration attempt (had to come back here!), bankruptcy, eviction, redundancy and have been pretty much depressed for as long as I can remember.

We are now living in 'temporary' council accommodation while we wait for a council house (which I never imagined in all my wildest dreams I would actually be looking forward to ). After all I owned my 1st house at 25 with a small mortgage, had an decent education and was at the start of an excellent career.

When I look back on my life, I had so many opportunities which I did not recognise because I have always been a negative thinker.

I have been reading up on his stuff lately (especially Paul McKenna's book and 'The Secret') and it's so bloody true.

AIBU to think that they should be teaching this in schools??

I dunno, but I do think they ought to drum it into quite a lot of pupils that being a tv reality star is not a guaranteed career possibilty....

Seriously though, I think what you are recognising now is normal.. most of us at some point learn to be happy with what we have, and realise that regretting is a wasted and negative energy..

YANBU, I'm a bit woo, and I like The Secret. I should probably add .

So what convinced you or flicked the switch? I'm trying to convince Dh.

Curlymama - Someone bought me The Secret over a year ago and I had to read it 3 times before it 'registered'. I liked the idea but thought it was a load of bolleaux! Sort of hit me a few months ago so found further books and now it all makes perfect sense.

Read Carol Dweck's 'Mindset'. It's completely changed my life. If intelligence is 'learnable' then we can do so much more than we ever thought possible, we learn effort isn't fruitless it will pay off in the end.

A growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset will take you far and it's never too late to change. Look to the future and be positive, you can't change the past. Couldn't get on with The Secret personally.

Some schools teach Resiliency which helps prevent teenage depression. A teacher friend has been trained to teach it. She was a little cynical at first but says it really makes a difference to a significant proportion of students and has helped her to be more positive as the training course consisted of virtual cognitive behavioural therapy for her before she then learnt the techniques to teach in a teenager friendly way.

Yanbu. I feel exactly the same. Can I recommend louise hay? The other way to look at it is " hurray! Thank goodness I've found out about positive thinking in this life!!" ;)