John is an extremely negative person. Lack of confidence, distrust, anxiety, you name it he has it. One day the negativity consumed him totally and drained him of any energy he had left. He just lay on a bench, full of gloom and doom.
A psychiatrist named Linda knew about his plight and came to help him.
“Why don’t you tell me about how things are going for you right now?”, said Linda.
John remained silent and defensive , not wanting to speak about his matter.
“Are you afraid of revealing too much about yourself? Don’t worry I am only here to help.”
After some futile probing, Linda took out a piece of paper and drew a line to create two columns. She passed the paper to John and asked, “Why don’t you do me just this, write down a list of good things that happened to you on the first column, and the bad things on the second column?”
John responded, “I do not have any good things to list at all.”
Linda said, “Alright. I will get going then. By the way, I am sorry to hear about your house.”
John gave a confused look. “What about my house?”
Linda said, “It got burnt down right?”
John responded, “No! I still have my house! It’s just nearby!”
Linda said, “Oh, it’s good you still have your house. Did you lose your job then?”
John exclaimed, “No! I still have my job! I am only taking time-off!”
Linda then said, “Good to know that you still have your home and a job! What about your health?”
The conversation continued for the next hour. Eventually, John stood up, shook hands with Linda and smiled happily. He held in his hand a paper filled with nothing but a list of positive stuffs!
