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This is actually a useful tool when it comes to retraining a depressed mind. The negativity in your head can be redirected with force of will and intent. If you persist in seeing the world in negative terms your first impression of many things will be clouded by that.
On the other hand this same kind of thinking can be used for unsavory things, like rebranding the foul in less alerting words. I’m sure that Orwell goes over the concept in his writings, but I forget the term used. It’s one thing to change your own perspective, it’s quite another to inflict it upon others. Examining your motives, or the motives of other, in these matters is wise.
Another wise thing is supporting the artists who create works you enjoy. Artists like me! You can do so with subscribestar, or Patreon, or even paypal. Maybe other things if you tell me about them. Perhaps we can meet in a dark alley and you can fling handfuls of coins at me as punishment for my many, many, sins! The door is open…
15 Comments
Very true, I’ve struggled to accept more positive framing but it’s made a substantial difference in the quality of my life. Things don’t seem as miserable as they used to. I wish I’d come around sooner, but really I’m just glad I was able to start thinking more positively at all.
One thing that I find helps is trying to have fun no matter what you are doing, if it’s something you gotta do and it sucks, if you can try to sing a song or listen to music, maybe try to turn it into a game, tell yourself a story, or think about something fun you are looking forward to, so long as the task doesn’t require a whole lot of cognitive engagement it helps to keep the mind busy with something fun. It isn’t super easy, especially at first, and it won’t always work, but the simple act of at least *trying* to make things better can go a long way toward making things better, and the more practice you get, the easier it will be to frame things in a more positive light.
Hmm. For me, this is more like trying to trick myself with a tactic designed to be used on children. I’ve had substantial improvements to my state of mind but it was through ACCEPTING reality rather than try to fool myself about it. Like, I’ve fucked up before–instead of telling myself I was “experimenting” or something, I just say, well, I fucked up, got burned, learned my lesson, made myself a better person because of it. I mean, I don’t want to try and take away a tool that works for people, yet I can’t help but think this tool is more like a crutch or a blinder. To give an example, trying to re-frame the actions of an abusive friend or spouse as “spirited” or “spontaneous” is, to me, not only not helping, but actively making things worse. We worry too much about the “emotional connotation” of words instead of worrying about the meaning. You reference Orwell, but I’ll reference George Carlin, who had numerous bits about euphemisms and terminology changes.
It isn’t about fooling yourself, it’s about altering your perspective, to use a more concrete analogy say you have a neighbor who put something super ugly right in view out the window from your favorite chair, and every time you glance out the window you see it and get upset, in this analogy “fooling yourself” would be closing the curtains, it stops you from seeing the ugly thing, but now it’s dark and every time you see the curtain you remember why it’s closed, or you can move your chair two feet to the left and now the ugly thing isn’t visible from your perspective anymore, the sunshine still comes in, and you can still enjoy your day just fine, all because of a slight shift in perspective. Granted, not every situation can benefit from this perspective shift, like the abuse thing you mentioned, shitty things are still shitty things, but there are a lot of things that are only shitty because we view them as such. When I was a student any time it would rain on my walk between classes, everyone else would be miserable while walking in the rain, at usually I was too at first, but when I’d notice the rain affecting my mood I would start singing “I’m Singin’ In The Rain” from the musical by the same name, and by the time I was out of the rain I was in a good mood again and ready to tackle class.
You can’t change everything that sucks, but not everything has to suck, so if you can’t change something that sucks, try changing how you look at it or how you interact with it and you might find it sucks less. My philosophy is no matter what you are doing, if you aren’t having fun you are doing it wrong; if you cannot make it fun do something else. In a lot of ways perception *IS* reality, and if you cannot change reality, you can at least change your perception, that doesn’t mean to bury your head in the sand and ignore a shitty situation that you *can* do something about, but rather to try to make the situation less shitty by choosing a less shitty outlook.
“My philosophy is no matter what you are doing, if you aren’t having fun you are doing it wrong; if you cannot make it fun do something else.”
OR as I phrase it, “If you can’t have fun doing what you’re doing, then it isn’t worth doing.” It’s gotten me through some ‘hellish’ situations, and hasn’t always worked, but I continue to attempt to apply it everyday of my life. :)
Well, that’s sort of what I was trying to say myself; I learned to just accept things. It’s raining? Oh well, it’s raining, what’re you gonna do? Stoicism, to use the proper word. Your metaphor about moving the chair starts with accepting that the ugly thing ain’t moving, so once you accept that, you can work on finding a solution or just ignoring it. Kinda like addicts are told that step one is admitting they have a problem. The comic came across more like NOT admitting you have a problem but calling it an “alternate lifestyle.” To me, anyway–the following page seems to indicate I did not read it the way Jackie wrote it.
yeah, for example : “I fucked my wrist falling down the stairs” is very negative
in opposition to “I got 2 months of medical time off” which is pretty great
(true story XD)
She is a librarian. She knows her word play.
Orwell’s word for inflicting mental retraining upon others was “Doublethink”, and it was often wrapped up in “newspeak” which was using words for the opposite of their meaning. So the Department of Love was responsible for the new war with Eastasia, it was a key point to advertise they were, “always at war with Eastasia.”
It’s essentially gas-lighting taken to the level of full brainwashing, and more violent intervention upon those who don’t voluntarily comply with the program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink
What you speak of is all too real, but they’re talking about something else entirely IMHO.
In the book, newspeak was an official variation of English designed to make all subtlety of language impossible, and in which it was impossible to say anything contrary to official policy. This already happens in our world; the USU, for example, has a department of defense, which spends much of its time invading other countries, such as Iran.
Yeah, “Newspeak” was never actually finished in the book, but it wasn’t that words meant the opposite of their actual definition, it was just a very, very simplistic language with the intention of literally not having words for certain concepts, so no one could ask for “freedom” or “liberty” if these ideas literally had no mouth-sounds that correlated to them.
An example positive thinking-
“I’m not overweight, I’m UNDERTALL!” -Garfield the cat.
Ok. I’m sold in the alley and flinging coins. But mostly to feed my sims, not punish yours. Address on request, I have a lovely alley out back.
Oooh she’s smart