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Comment by randycupertino | Hacker News Reader

This is a silly little mindgame but it really does help with worry and stress. You basically flip all worst-case scenarios on their head to see the advantages of whatever situation you're in.

Good Game: <seemingly terrible thing happens> Good! Now I can ....

Eg. My husband is divorcing me. Good! Now I can find someone who loves me deeply and doesn't leave ice cream containers composting on his desk.

My upstairs neighbors are hella loud and annoying. Good! Now I can spend more time visiting family, out and about with friends and at the gym getting ripped.

My research study failed. Good! Now I can devote my extra time to writing up another protocol and considering what else I want to work on.

A massive pandemic has me working from home and not leaving the house. Good! Now I can read all those books I've been wanting to get to and haven't had the chance.

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I had a realization the other day that nobody on the planet asked to be here. We all just appear one day and are forced to do what we can with what we have. No instruction manual, no control over our inherited reality, physical, mental or material. It stuck with me for several days and it has led to a surprising amount of psychic relief. I am finding myself more forgiving of myself and others.

Can't reach the grapes? Good! They were sour.

Huh... I wasn't sure the origins of that idiom and just googled it and that's exactly what it's from!

> . The idiom sour grapes is taken from an Aesop Fable called The Fox and the Grapes. In the story, a bunch of grapes hangs from a vine, just out of the fox’ s reach. The fox tries all manner of maneuvers in order to obtain the grapes, but he fails. The fox walks away muttering, “I am sure they are sour.” The moral of the fable is: “It is easy to despise what you can not get.”

Clever fox. I'm sure he found some nice chicken eggs to steal instead of those grapes anyway.

5'10 balding male with a micropenis. Good!

Rule 34

You now have a good excuse to sleep with 10/10 escorts who are way outta your league.

Good! I’m not short!

Good! I can choose my hair colour when picking a wig.

Good! Big penis is not comfortable for partner.

Now you'll finally put that mouth to work and actually get someone to orgasm.

100000000% agree with this. Some common difficulties with this are...

Sometimes you can't think of a reason why something is good. Learn how to believe not knowing the reason it's good yet is also a good thing.

Be very careful when doing this with other people's problems. 99.99% of the time if someone else is struggling, it's a mistake to see the good in it. Usually it's best to acknowledge and learn about how the situation is so difficult... say "That really sucks!" and let them be the one to see it as a good thing if they want.

I’ve tried this before, but I always fear I vastly overestimated my ability to handle the worst case.

> I always fear I vastly overestimated my ability to handle the worst case.

Good! Now you can live through rough times and prove your own fortitude and resilience to yourself and the doubters.

“I don’t fail, I learn.”

I failed everything in my life. Good! Now I can kill myself.

This kind of reframing have never succeeded with me, they only make me want to jump faster because of everything that I will never be.

Reminds me of the Jocko video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8

Exactly this. When I caught covid, I used that opportunity to catch-up on tv series I have been wanting to watch :D #Expanse

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