Expecting the worst

Stuart Schneiderman asks at Had Enough Therapy "Does Negative Thinking Make You Happy?

If you expect the worst you will always be pleasantly surprised.

Similarly, do you know pwople who convince themselves that they are amazing?

It turns out that some Millennial women are so filled with positive thoughts about themselves that they have driven away all eligible suitors.

If you keep telling yourself and everyone else that you are “amazing,” people are eventually going to figure out that you would not be saying it if it were true.

So, what are we to do?

Freud wanted us to obsess over the past. More recently therapists want us to live for the moment. We do better to make a plan for tomorrow and then to implement it.

A friend of mine at work has done exactly that. She has given her two weeks notice. After spending every day of the last four years I have known her complaining about our place of employment, she has bid us adieu. I wish her the best, but I doubt she will stop thinking negatively. The negative thinking did not make her happy. It did drive her to make a plan, though. The plan involved getting a government subsidy, which enabled her to quit working, and sit on her butt at home!

Read more here: http://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/12/does-negative-thinking-make-you-happy.html