Each week we give away the next chapter of our book for free. We hope you enjoy it! Here’s this week’s chapter:
Chapter 32: Rephrasing things positively
The words we use to describe our lives affect how we perceive our lives and thus the quality of our lives. You can improve the quality of your life by choosing to rephrase things positively. In particular, we’ve found that rephrasing obligation words, limitation words, and violent words has significantly improved our happiness, and we’re going to show you why and how.
…and here’s the rest:
 Have you read our book, The Usual Error? It teaches you how to solve communication issues with compassion and understanding, how to get rid of needless conflict from your life, how to make your relationships smoother, and how to generally be happier. Also, the illustrations are super cool. (:You can buy it on Amazon or read it for free online. |
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Taking responsibility for our choices instead of blaming our circumstances? Oh so existentialist! Couple this with the “you are made of meat and it’s okay” thing and you’ve got Sartre’s transcendence and facticity. I love it.
Philosophy for people who like smaller words! (:
That’s (part of) why I love you guys.
This might be my favorite chapter yet — rephrasing without being all Pollyanna about it. What if we followed each of these guidelines consistently not only with the words we say to others but also with the words we say to ourselves in our heads? What could we do besides become someone who says, “Oh I could learn to do whatever, if I want to and choose to….” or internalizes that “Yeah/no, I don’t have to choose to do suchandsuch at all” or even stops beating themselves up — oops what’s a better way to rephrase that? !
This could be the heart of the revolution right here. :)
Yes! And that’s one of the amazing things, that once we change the words we speak, it automatically does change the words in our heads!
I’m glad you like this chapter so much! (:
I read the whole book earlier this year, but just reading the chapter this evening and thinking about various things that it would be nice to have completed, I’m looking forward to doing laundry this weekend! Not, “I need to do laundry” but “I want to do laundry.” (I like doing laundry, actually, and having a sense of anticipation rather than a sense of urgency just feels nicer right now.)
@Julia: Nice!