I tried explaining the idea of positive thinking and affirmations to mum. She is horrified.
Me: “The idea is that we replace our usual negative thoughts with positive ones.’
Mum: ‘You mean you delude yourself?’
Me: ‘No, you just try to focus on the good rather than bad.’
A pause.
Mum: ‘You’re not going to go all American, are you?’
Me: ‘What do you mean?’
Mum: ‘You know… happy. People don’t like that. It’s not real.’ I’ve been warned…
No offence intended to any American readers, just my mum’s very Irish, slightly cynical view point on life… to which Louise would say…
‘It is reported that over 90 per cent of what we worry about never happens. That means that our negative worries have less than a 10 per cent chance of being correct. If this is so, isn’t being positive more realistic than being negative? … If you think about it, the important issue is not which is more realistic but rather ‘Why be miserable when you can be happy?’
So there!
Help Me! Blog 
Love this! And I agree – as Yann Martel writes in The Life of Pi, ‘What’s the better story?’ – being miserable or seeing the bright side? We are so bloomin’ cynical on this group of islands it actually comes across as a stubborn need never to shine.
Thanks Elizabeth! It’s funny, isn’t it? I love that bit in the Life of Pi – both the book and film. You are so right about the ‘stubborn need never to shine’. What a good sentence. Thanks for reading and for sharing the link on twitter, I really appreciate it.
Let’s remember please to always separate “American” and “New Yorker.” Your mum sounds like she’d make a great New Yorker. 😉 (And see how I phrased that so positively?)
Zoe, I always remember that distinction. But was on the West Coast last year and gotta I loved that too. And yeah, you phrased that very well. x