why all this stuff on affirmations?
i used to think affirmations were bs and then i realized my mind was full of talk anyway (and much of it negative) so i might as well say kind, helpful, beneficial things in my own mind. you can choose what to say, whatever resonates with you
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i still think affirmations are bs 🤔
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what if it's BS but it works anyway?
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what does “works” mean here? i expect at best short-term gains and long-term brittleness, at least for myself personally
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I'm thinking via placebo or something
I am torn on these sorts of "fool yourself until it works" type of things.
Where do you expect the brittleness to come in?
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i worry affirmations risk building a new structure that fights negative self-talk but not in an integrated way. the fight drains energy and the negative self-talk might come back stronger under stress. i would rather integrate the negative self-talking part
this thread isn’t very clear or detailed but it has part of the thing:
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there can genuinely be a cost to using self-help / mind-hacking / therapeutic / transformative techniques that are okay but not that good; they can sorta help you while also causing subtle forms of damage you have to deal with using better techniques
Show this thread
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a friend of mine recently described “hypersensitivity to bullshit” as a trait of kids with very disorganized attachment and that resonated with me a lot. if i were to try something like affirmations i’d really have to word them carefully to not set off my own bullshit detector
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makes sense, I have similar concerns about trying to make yourself happy nearly all of the time
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The fun dance is that every negative though is fighting for SOME good from the perspective of the talker. Being able to inhabit the good of the parts talking and listening at the same time and choosing which reality is the real game
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I know what you mean. It depends I think where you are starting from ie too suppressive of negative feelings vs too deferential to negative feelings. End goal is confidence that you have the option to choose, at times, to not let negative vibes crowd out well being for a bit