Viewing my life as a series of serious lessons designed specifically for my stupid ass has been the biggest positive development of 2018.
Not that it's necessarily a very accurate world view, but it helps snapping out of weird, repetitive patterns of interpretation.
Conversation
"Oh, this upsetting thing happened. Must be because <static reason>," is vastly less functional than "Oh, this upsetting thing happened. What did I miss?"
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I guess this says more about my prior level of emotional cognition than it does about this particular lens, but whatever... a win is a win.