Massive storms get names. But when does a tiny storm get its own title?
When it’s quite unusual. Thunderstorm Hector is not your typical thunderstorm. It’s a dark cloud that forms above the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory of Australia just about every day. It rises to 66,000 feet and its lightning can be seen over 60 miles away in all directions.
If you ask most people whether it’s possible for lightning to strike the same place two days in a row they’d say it’s unlikely but maybe not impossible. But for lightning to strike the same place day after day is unheard of.
When we experience upsetting events, our minds give them a negative meaning. The idea that there are less upsetting interpretations may seem as inconceivable as lightning striking the same spot hundreds of times, yet we can create new interpretations. We do so using the possibilities game.
What is the possibilities game?
The possibilities game involves noticing we’ve given an event a negative interpretation and then making a game of finding alternative meanings. You can give yourself a point for each new meaning you create. The power of this approach is that it relieves our upsets in a fun way.
The steps of the possibilities game are:
- Notice the meaning you’ve given an even you don’t feel good about.
- Create several alternative meanings.
- Give yourself a point for each new alternative.
- Notice that the original interpretation was in the mind, not in the events.
Here’s how Jessie, one student of the Lefkoe Occurring Course, used the technique
She was at a dinner party and a woman kept interrupting her. She was feeling quite annoyed. The meanings she gave the woman’s behavior was “She’s rude. There’s something wrong with her.”
When she played the possibilities game she created the following alternative meanings:
- She could be extremely insecure.
- She might have some weird judgment about me that is making her talk over me.
- Maybe she is competitive and has to ‘win’ at everything – even a conversation with a stranger.
- Jet lag might be making her loopy.
- She could be unaware of her actions.
- I can never know what all this energetic bossiness is coming from.
She got six points for coming up with six interpretations. She then noticed the interpretation she gave originally was not in the events but in her mind. As a result, her annoyed feelings dissipated.
One mistake people can make with this game is to try too hard to come up with “good” alternative meanings
You do best when you treat this as brainstorming and go for quantity. Give yourself a point no matter how “good” or useful the possibilities you generate seem to be. If you do, you’ll find that you’ll create enough to help you notice the meaning was in the mind and not in the events.
Summary
The possibilities game involves generating many alternative meanings for an upsetting event and giving yourself a point for each alternative you create. Then you notice that the events don’t have an intrinsic interpretation. Finally, this strategy works best by focusing on quantity over quality.
Play the possibilities game daily for fun. If you do, you’ll find that the outer storms of life still show up from time to time but you can better face them with an inner calm.
How to dissolve negative feelings in seconds (and make it a compelling habit)
Life brings us all big and small storms that can keep us from experiencing total joy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow be a bit more like the eye of the storm, unaffected by the chaos around us?
Fortunately, my husband Morty created a way to do just that called the Lefkoe Occurring Course. In that course, you learn how to dissolve unwanted emotions in seconds. Then you make dissolving emotions a habit. You see reality with much greater clarity. As a result, positive and uplifting emotions tend to occur naturally.
You can register for the Lefkoe Occurring Course on August 17th. However, to do that, you first need to join the waiting list here: https://www.mortylefkoe.com/lfc/lfc-2-0-waiting-list/
While you wait you’ll get several goodies teaching you more about how to dissolve unwanted feelings. So please join today and use what you learn to help yourself and contribute to others.
