Page 54 - ALIVE CODE

DARE TO BE A.L.I.V.E. - DON’T BE A D.A.S.H.

So far, you explored your basic philosophies and self-talk in different ways.
You identi ed what your experience means to you what downing labels you
often use; and what demand statements you frequently make about this
experience. You practiced thinking or “talking” to yourself in a more self-
helping way.

Awfulizing

Now you can focus on what is called awfulizing. Awfulizing describes labeling
your experience as completely bad, 100% BAD, or more than bad. You then
feel increasingly upset. Awfulizing insists that an experience is bawler than it
should be hence more than bad. The experience that you label as awful,
horrible, monstrous, or terrible can usually be re- labeled as adverse,
disagreeable, inconvenient, or unpleasant. Such re-labeling can quickly
reduce your emotional upsetness.

To you, your problem is real and you probably see it as “bad,” but how bad is
it really? Other people have similar problems and often deal with them
differently or better than you do. If so, one way you can help yourself is to
look at your dif culties in a different way as inconvenient and unpleasant
but never really awful.

When you experience some Adversity, do you awfulize about it? Remember
that awful means more than 100% bad and often means 0% good. Do not
minimize your life dif culties.

Do not maximize them either. Try to look at them realistically.

When you awfulize and see your problem as horrible, you are starting a

process of upsetting yourself overmuch. Chances are that making yourself
overly upset is not going to help you to see the problem clearly or to take
action to correct it.

In fact, awfulizing greatly increases the chances that you will make yourself
so emotionally upset that you will block yourself from doing better.

ALIVE CODE
Page 53