Pessimism

Paraphrased from page 200 of "Full Catastrophe Living," by Jon Kabat-Zinn: A pessimist is someone who: * Blames oneself for the bad things that happen. * Thinks the effects of whatever happened will last a long time. * Thinks the bad event will affect every (or many) aspect(s) of one's life. In other words, "It's my fault, it's going to last forever, nothing will be the same." I don't usually blame myself when bad things happen. I'm pretty good about accepting my own humanity and realizing where the problem lies. The second and third bullets, however, hit the bulls-eye. I have many examples, the most recent being my tennis elbow. I was convinced that this would be a permanent injury and that I wouldn't be able to play tennis or work out, and my computer skills would suffer because it hurt to use the mouse. Right now, my tennis elbow is almost completely gone and I've been working out and playing tennis as usual. Evidence that it wouldn't last forever or affect everything I do. It amazes me that after all the self-help books I've read and all the therapy I've been through, the idea of pessimism never came up. This idea has aspects of cognitive therapy and self-talk to it, but as a unit, pessimism seems very powerful. I can see so clearly how my pessimistic pattern of thinking has contributed to my own misery. This seems so simple and obvious, I'm still shocked I missed it. So, I have a short-term goal to identify and alter my pessimistic thought patterns. I would like to thank Peter at Too Busy Living for recommending this book in one of his posts.