Monday, August 23, 2004 - Emotional Manipulation For Dummies

I'd been compaining to Ironwolf last night about being down again (a fairly common emotional state for me), and he suggested an intriguing little game. It runs on the premise that you should be able to control your reactions to a given situation, and by doing so be able to change your overall "mood-set". There's nothing new about this idea - if you smile, you're more likely to feel happy, even if you don't start out that way.

We spent a little time coming up with different responses to a neutral statement with the responses being based on specific emotions. In this case the statement was: "I can't find my shoes."

Now here's some responses:

• "Oh, no, your shoes are gone?! This is horrible!"
• "Yeah, so go look for them."
• "I can't believe you lost them again."
• "And I suppose you want me to look for them?"
• "Boo hoo. Too bad for you."
• "Oh, dear, that's too bad. Do you need some help?"
• "Fine, I'll go look for them."
• "So what do you want me to do about it?"
• "How could you be so stupid?"
• "Hmmm... you look upstairs while I look downstairs."
• "So find a different pair!"
• "And I should care because..."
• "I'm really sorry. I'll help you find them."

It really was a fascinating exercise, and it really opened my eyes as to how negative I am at times. So the point of the exercise is to put it into practice in everyday situations by choosing a positive response over a negative response. Over time, the resultant should be an improved overall attitude.

Ironwolf may have something here. I'll give it a try, and see what happens.