27 May If things aren’t going right, then go left!
Some time ago, I came up with a strategy that worked really well for me when things weren’t working that well for me. But as is often the case, even when I’ve discovered and even mastered self-help tools or hacks, and even if or when they’ve provided me with real positive benefits, it’s not unusual, after some time, for me to forget about them or maybe even just get bored with them and move on to other approaches.
But I recently remembered an approach that has worked well for me in the past, and thankfully, worked well for me again when I pulled it out of the metaphorical bottom drawer and put it (back) into practice.
I discovered or came up with this approach after watching, of all things, an episode of Seinfeld (many years ago now). For those who’re not familiar, Seinfeld is/ was a comedy in which the lives of 4 friends are observed in all their boring and banal, normal hilarity.
Each character is known for different things and one, George, is (at the risk of oversimplifying) known largely as being a loser. He’s mostly single, mostly unemployed, and mostly fails at most things he tries.
And so, one day, when talking to the lead character, Jerry, he decides that if everything he’s doing isn’t working, what if he were to do the opposite of anything he thought might work. He does; and it works!
Then I got to thinking; this held some similarities with me when I was down and depressed. My depressed voice would usually tell me to do things that were negative and unhelpful. So what, then, might happen if when depressed, I did the opposite of what my inner critic was telling me to do!
If my voice said go left, I’d go right; if my inner voice said to zig, I’d zag!
And guess what? It actually works (at least it does most of the time).
There’s much to be said for listening to your gut, or to trusting your intuition. But not necessarily all the time; and not necessarily if you experience depression or anxiety or other conditions in which your judgement can be seriously bias (and not in a good way).
At these times, rather than listening to yourself, maybe it’s appropriate to tell yourself to shut up, at least for a bit, because you’re going to do something different, something that might be more likely to lead you away from the darkness and negativity and into the light of happiness and positivity!