Dostoyevsky’s polar bear<\/a> from the other day? Turns out that trying not to be negative works in much the same way. <\/p>\nTrying to increase your positive thoughts can be done, but some of the science behind it would tend to show that by focussing on it too much you end up focussing on the negative thoughts you would like to eliminate. <\/p>\n
The suggestion?<\/p>\n
Feel what you feel, deal with it, don’t beat yourself up about it and smile. <\/p>\n
If some douchebag in the street tells you that you’d be prettier if you smiled more, feel free to give him the finger. I added that part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sleeping. That will come back at some point, right? Along me with my focus and other general brain function? The heat isn’t helping. Yesterday, I was (trying to) read a book about the futility of positive thinking. Remember Dostoyevsky’s polar bear from the other day? Turns out that trying not to be negative works in … Continue reading 0132, is all well?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-1LR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6814,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=6814","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":0},"title":"The futility of positive thinking","author":"Michelle","date":"July 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So I wanted to go back to this. I mentioned it in passing, but it's a bit stuck in my brain gears. Remember Dostoyevsky's polar bear from the other day? I wondered if trying not to think negative thoughts works in much the same way as not thinking about polar\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5632,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=5632","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":1},"title":"Not being un-myself","author":"Michelle","date":"May 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"And tell me, did Venus blow your mind? Was it everything you wanted to find? And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there? --Train\/Drops of Jupiter I was talking to a friend who joked about my use of a double negative. Using a negative to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9078,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9078","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":2},"title":"How to fall in love…","author":"Michelle","date":"February 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A while ago, I read this article in the NYT about how to fall in love with anyone. Or rather, it's an essay about a study about how people bond which seemed to have a lot of success in creating love in a lab setting. The study inspired someone to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=337","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":3},"title":"Accentuate the Positive","author":"Michelle","date":"July 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative And latch on to the affirmative --Johnny Mercer \u00a0 \u00a0 As a person who skews heavily sarcastic and cynical,\u00a0 I tend not to notice a little negativity in a person as a flaw. I go through life mocking\u00a0 the Pollyannas of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3482,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=3482","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":4},"title":"Being infected by joy","author":"Michelle","date":"January 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day in fat camp we were talking about the human tendency to focus on the negative, and some possible biological reasons for it. For instance, if you've almost been eaten by a grizzly, you really need to make sure you've learned a lesson or you may not survive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8638,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=8638","url_meta":{"origin":6811,"position":5},"title":"Bad experiences as a catalyst for good","author":"Michelle","date":"December 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"and I... I love it when you read to me. And you... You can read me anything. --The Magnetic Fields\/The Book of Love \u201cNot only are there no happy endings,\" she told him, \"there aren't even any endings.\u201d --Neil Gaiman\/American Gods In an imaginary conversation the other day, I mentioned\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}