Daniel Fortune

Here in America, it’s easy to get caught up in the malaise of pop-culture psychology that inundates us with catchy cliche’s and “postitive vibe” mysticism in place of the deep therapy many of us need.

In our culture, it’s common to over-simplify complex issues. Especially, the ones related to our mental health, and it makes it more challenging for us to cut through the B.S. to access the help/resources we need, find the answers we’re looking for, and cultivate emotional intelligence.

Let’s face it… there are times in our lives that positive thinking (alone) won’t be enough.

When Postitive Thinking Isn’t Enough…

Some of us have experienced traumatic events that have created deep emotional scaring and it isn’t just our minds that remember. Our bodies, truly DO keep the score.

As someone who has been deeply depressed and has battled intense suicidal ideations multiple times in my life, trying to fight off the dark energy vultures that’ve attached themselves to me with postive thinking or hippie “vibe” therapy has done more harm than good. In more cases than not, it has only served to intensify and prolong my suffering.

In certain emotional climates, using positive thinking is like using water to try to put out an electrical fire. While water is great for putting out a bonfire at a campsite, using it to put out a fire at the electrical panel in your home is a terrible idea. There’s a high likelihood it will destroy you, possibly your home, and everything in it.

Do This Instead: Inversion Thinking

Rather than postitive thinking, what we need to practice is inversion thinking. Inversion thinking is a mind model that allows us to embrace what we’re thinking and feeling and gradually reframe it.

This is vitally important, because, rather than try to make the huge emotional leaps that postive thinking requires, with inversion thinking, rather than suppressing how we truly feel, we’re allowing it to come to the surface, so it can be managed out in the open.

When I was a teenager, I had really bad acne. When I would notice a white head on my face, I would pop it. Doing so, while it was a “good” temporary remedy, in the long run, it made things much worse, because it created scaring on my face.

What I should have done was fight against my temptation to pop the white heads, let them fester, and use the right medications/topical remedies that would allow me to adress the surface issue in a healthy way that minimized long-term scaring.

Expression Beats Supression

This can be true emotionally, as well. There are some emotions that we need to let come to the surface. Suppressing them does more harm than good.

Inversion thinking is a form of exposure therapy that, when done properly, exposes us to healthy modes of expression that don’t over-simplify, trivialize, or minimize what we’re truly feeling deep down inside.

Inversion thinking, as a stoic philosophy, is generally popularized in business circles more than it is in mainstream Psychology, but I’ve been able to integrate it into my emotional coping strategies too.

Try it!

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know what your favorite inversion thinking practices are in the comments below. If you have any questions or content ideas you would like to share with me, feel free to contact me at info@danielfortune.blog