I am listening to Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead-My Life Story by Cecile Richards. She describes appearing before a US Senate committee to testify about the organization she has lead for ten years: Planned Parenthood. The organization helps many women get the health care they need but has been the target of conservative attempts to defund it and perhaps abolish it. I only mention the audiobook because as with so many things in politics, her appearance was purposely given a look that disguises its political purpose. Mrs. Richards is the daughter of Anne Richards, the 45th governor of Texas.
I mention this book and the Congressional testimony involved because it is a clear example of speech between two groups, neither of which is trying to discuss. Both sides have a pre-established message and mission. It is clear that both parties want to win, to score points, to outwit, to overpower, and defeat the opposition.
We can have a similar arrangement within ourselves. When we wish, we can take a theme such as "I am a dummy" or "I am a genius" and conduct a pro and con series of remarks that bolster the theme and an accompanying set that attempts to tear the theme down. When I look up books on self talk in Amazon, quite a few are explicitly aimed at being positive and not negative. They support learning to produce uplifting and inspiring messages.
I think it can be more fun and more helpful to leave the floor open for both positive and negative statements. If I have a feeling that I am a loser, it can be fun to let the negative side list everything it can in support of loser-ness. But the more honest and energetic I am, the more each point supporting me as loser can be questioned. If I am aware of my thinking and my history, I can, in all honesty, list acts, statements, moments of originality and imagination that contradict the picture of a loser. I can debate the thesis on both sides. I can spend as much time and energy on the question as I wish. I can make lists for and against the theme, pause for as long as I like, and return to the debate at a later time.
During the "debate", "trial" or hearing with myself, I may come to a surprising conclusion that I am more of a loser or less of a loser than I thought. I am very likely to more closely examine what I mean by loserliness. I may decide that there are several types of loser or that the whole concept is just a wastebasket for grumpy thoughts about myself.
