By Carol Grannick on March 7, 2010
The most frequent way I decrease negativity that’s beginning to feel inappropriate or unproductive is by disputing negative thoughts, because most often, they are incorrect. Of course, it’s always important to remember that negative emotions are perfectly appropriate for many situations; it’s when they feel inappropriate, prolonged and damaging to your energy, productivity and creativity [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk, negative thoughts
By Carol Grannick on February 17, 2010
Hey, I’ve been getting some private email questions about “positivity” and one of the crucial tools for changing negative thinking to positive – learning to dispute negative thinking. “Do you think people should be happy all the time?” is the gist of many of the questions (which I have permission to post).
Here’s a little quiz [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 26, 2010
What if when you have negative thoughts you aren’t just depressed or depleted…What if you’re wrong?
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk, negative thoughts, negativity
By Carol Grannick on January 19, 2010
The ability to “dispute” your negative thoughts is a cornerstone of changing pessimistic thinking to optimistic. For me, and for many clients, learning to dispute is an invaluable skill.
But it is not the only technique for creating positive emotions. For those of us who “flow” more naturally toward negativity, a variety of tools are helpful [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positivity, tips for positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 7, 2010
I have a choice to think one way or the other. The positive choice energizes me to blog, write and enjoy the day inside.
That choice – and learning how to make and benefit from that choice in an ongoing way – is what The Irrepressible Writer is all about.
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged learned optimism, negative self-talk, positivity
By Carol Grannick on January 5, 2010
THREE TIPS for your 2010 journey to becoming and staying an irrepressible writer:
1.Find comfort with your feelings.
Feelings are transient, but significant: what you think affects how you feel. Welcome feelings without judgment, but work to create more positive emotions by challenging irrational or prolonged negative emotions. If you [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged positive emotions, positivity, Tips
By Carol Grannick on December 30, 2009
As much as I love and devour fiction, particularly picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, the book that impacted my life and writing this year more than any other was Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s POSITIVITY (Crown, 2009).
I needed a post-it note on almost every page to keep track of all the salient points!
The most [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, positivity
By Carol Grannick on December 25, 2009
One of the helpful aspects of The Irrepressible Writer workshops is the ability to see and hear other writers in the group learn to dispute their ‘pessimistic explanatory style‘. This post will bring part of that experience to you.
WARNING: It’s a long post (under 1000 words), but if I split it up into multiple posts, [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged learned optimism
By Carol Grannick on December 10, 2009
You want to get to work. You think about getting to work. You’ve got one, two, seven projects on your mind.
But nothing happens. You walk past your writing space and imagine yourself writing. Your heart glides over and sits at the desk. But your body stays away.
Why can’t you work?
Maybe you get agitated. Then you get annoyed that [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It, Rethinking Writing Obstacles | Tagged downward spiral, how to stop negativity spiral, writers' block
By Carol Grannick on November 23, 2009
Many years ago, the presenter in a workshop on human emotion asked us to close our eyes and imagine clouds in the sky moving with the wind, from one end of our mind’s vision to the other, then passing out of sight. As we did, he said, “Human emotion, feelings, are transient in this same way.”
If I [...]
Posted in Learned Resilience: How To Do It | Tagged negative self-talk, negative thoughts
