Badassery Magazine November 2017 Issue 18 | Page 17

“This is good because...”
I read this as a small line in Jen
Sincero’s fun and insightful best
seller “You Are a Badass: how
to stop doubting your greatness
and start living your awesome
life”. She was explaining how to
shift from a negative mood into
a genuine good mood, or let’s
be honest, at least a less sucky
mood.
Within these four little words
you’ll find a powerful technique
to reframe your perspective and
to reshape a negative mood. For
the record, can I tell you that
I am 100% NOT a Life Coach
but after years of yoga and yoga
teacher training, parenthood and
marriage and life, I’m going to go
ahead and call myself expert on
bad moods.
Sometimes this is a running
commentary below the surface
of our consciousness. When we
hear it and realize we’re hearing
git, then stop and reframe the
situation.
This mood hack works with
situations both minor and petty
and even heart breaking. Why?
Because if you can reframe a
situation, you’ve reframed the
perspective and meaning o f the
entire experience.
With the big ones it does take
longer. A lot longer. But you can
usually get there.
I can’t see a freakin’ silver lining
to this cloud because it’s actually
a funnel cloud F5 twister like
the finger of god coming down to
smite me.
Deep breath. This is good be-
cause…
Your teenage daughter is arrested
for a DUI. (Totally hypothetical.
My daughter is 5.)
This is good because she didn’t
kill anyone while driving.
This is good because she didn’t
die in her car.
This is good because I won’t
have to pay for her car insurance
anymore (because she’s losing her
license)
This is good because this is a
powerful life lesson that she re-
fused to listen from me and now
she’s learned it the hard way.
my mechanic that the mechan-
ic was ripping me off and that
I should go to his transmission
guy. He was very convincing and
I hesitated, but I decided to go
with my gut and stick with my
mechanic.
It ended up not being the trans-
mission.
My mechanic researched it and
discovered that the $3,000 part
was under a manufacturer re-
call and then he had it towed to
the dealership where it could be
serviced for free.
The dealership discovered that
I had received but not acted on
TWO safety recall letters (I had
It can take a long time and go
a change of address where it was
ahead and let them start snarky
lost). The more important recall
and bitter as long as you make
that I HAD NO IDEA ABOUT
each line a bit better. Here’s the
was the brakes. He said it was so
secret. Keep going until it FEELS good that this happened because
AUTHENTIC AND GENUINE.
my brakes literally could have
Keep writing until you finally
failed.
reach something that triggers a
sense of relief and gratitude.
I was going to take a solo road
trip with my kids the week later.
You may have to dig DEEP. It
may only work after more time
This is good because…well de-
has passed.
spite the convenience. This was
good because of everything. I just
Sometimes you may not find out couldn’t see it right away.
the answer to something until
much later.
Let’s say that your best friend
found a lump in her breast and
For example, I have a great car
not only is it cancer, but it’s the
but one day while driving my
aggressive kind and she’ll need
husband to the airport, a cloud of surgery, chemo and radiation.
smoke billowed out of my engine (This happened to my best friend
and the transmission seized.
this year.)
My husband jumped out on the
side of the freeway and took an
This is good because at least she
Uber to the airport while my
has great insurance and her hus-
preschooler and I waited for the
band is a nurse.
tow truck. The tow truck driver
This is good because she got her
pleaded with me on the way to
mammogram as scheduled and
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