Test your positive thinking: make yourself the main character and feel pain

Posted by: Jo Jordan on: November 22, 2009

How deep is your positive thinking?

So you’ve resolved to live happily ever after? And your friends and colleagues are mocking your for your new found happy ways?

The big test

Here is the big test for your commitment to happiness.

Imagine yourself in the most horrible circumstances

Write a short novel with you as the main character. And write the worst things that can happen to you. Not the most horrible things in other people’s minds but the most horrible in yours.

Think of things that are so bad that your heart races and you feel as if you could pass out.

Now write yourself out of those situations.

When you can describe the worst and write a story that takes you out of those places, then you understand your hopes and values. Then you are truly thinking positively.

My first try

I am going to try this over a cup of coffee. And you know what? I know the first hurdle. I know I don’t want to write myself out of a bad situation because then it is obvious I could get out of it! And when I define the situation as bad, I don’t want it to suddenly be quite manageable (if disgusting and terrifying). I wonder if I will ever manage this!