I felt simultaneously supported and intimidated, a strangely winning combination."
-Chandi Challa, "The Science of Using Threatening Messages for Positive Thinking"
I'm obsessed with ominous positivity. There is something so motivating and soothing about being told that good things will happen to me and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. It appeals to the part of my brain that starts back-up planning for every situation and scenario. It soothes the part of my brain that describes a certain entrance to a park near my house as "the serial killer entrance." (It totally is and I've debated my brother at length about this and finally he agreed.) It gives me some semblance of calm in an otherwise chaotic universe. But always as a threat. I love it.
"This is a threat. (Smiley face)." Genius, pure genius.
The phrase ominous positivity comes from the recesses of 2019 Tumblr, but I truly believe fortune cookies are really where it all started. Think about the fortunes you've gotten over the years. Many of them have the vibe of ominous positivity: "You will travel to magical places," "You will be successful in all you do," "You will be loved and admired by all who meet you." While not explicitly ominous, the tone feels inevitable. You can't stop whatever this fortune is telling you. This is a threat.
Maybe this is why I kept five years worth of fortunes in a cup in my kitchen. In her piece for Medium about ominous positivity, Chandi Challa talks about how our brains like certainty and ominous positivity, unlike regular or toxic positivity, guarantees some type of predictable outcome. It empowers us; we don't have to think positively, we have to do something positively. It may also help us practice self-compassion. Challa also introduced me to pronoia, which is the opposite of paranoia. It's the belief that the universe conspires for our benefit, not our detriment. Again, this is a threat.
There's often a hollowness to regular old positivity. When someone says, "You're going to be great," to me, my brain goes into overthinking mode. "What if I'm not?" "What if I trip and fall when I walk on stage?" "What if everyone loses the ability to speak while I'm presenting and they have to ask questions via the art of interpretive dance?" (This last one was a work stress dream I had once for a program I manage.) However, if that same person said, "You're going to be amazing and there's nothing you can do about it," my brain is like, "Yeah, we're freaking awesome. You will not forget what you were going to say because you are amazing. I will tell your legs to make sure you don't trip. Remember who you are, and you are awesome."
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| If anyone knows the original poster, let me know. I think I got this from Twitter. I closed my Twitter account and when I searched, I couldn't get the source without signing in. |
This week's fortunes are in the ominous positivity family. There are quite a few fortunes in the cup of fortunes that are, so we'll get to see many more over the course of the year. In preparing for this week's post, I asked friends over on Facebook to share the most ominously positive thing anyone has ever said to them. One of my friends from college shared that a high school religion teacher told her: "Your charisma would make you a great cult leader." I think that's fantastic, and her charisma would make her a great cult leader. I'd join her cult.
Here are this week's fortunes. It was a two fortune week.
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| March 2 |
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| March 3 |
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| March 4 - I've decided to track the frequency of the lucky numbers more completely (because my brain is a weird place and enjoys random stats like this). I think at the half-way point and at the end of the year, I use the 6 most frequently stitch numbers to play one of the big lotteries. |
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| March 5 |
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| March 6 |
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| March 7 |
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| March 8 - It's 26 and 11, but this is the closest I've gotten to having my birthday in a set of lucky numbers. |
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| Weeks 1-10 |
WIPs and Other Happenings
I'm making progress on the kit from Savage Stitcher. I have a little more left to do and then it'll be done and ready to hang somewhere in my house. I really need to figure out how to better display the 2021 stitch journal because I'm running out of wall space. This kit is also ominously positive, so there you go.
My print from
Sunnyside Studios arrived this week. If you like cats and whimsy, you should go buy something from Cindy Sun.
Today is my brother's birthday, so I want to wish him a very happy birthday. We're going to an Italian restaurant that makes pasta table side in a giant cheese wheel to celebrate. I can't think of a better way to celebrate the birth of my brother. Here's a picture of him and Keely bro-ing out on this day in 2019. My brother was Keely's actual favorite person.
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