Last week was a tough week.

For those of you who did not see it in the news, a Savannah native was put to death by lethal injection last Wednesday night.  I did not live in Savannah when the initial incident (a police officer was shot and killed) occurred in 1989, and had never really closely followed the case.  But it was hard to avoid last week.  As is understandable, people felt passionately about this matter, and discussions turned into nasty arguments.  I was offended by many of the on-line discussions which were on our local news channels’ facebook pages.  And it was people on both sides that were being offensive.

A gentleman whom I did not know, but who was a neighbor, committed suicide.

I realized that a good friend of mine is experiencing an extremely difficult phase of her life.

The economy is worsening and the headlines read, at one point, that this second recession will be “disastrous”.

Many of the news stations were showing clips of members of our United States Congress debating proposed legislation and the absolute lack of respect and basic human decency towards each other was astonishing to me.  And, again, it was people on both sides exhibiting this behavior.

When hit with all of this depressing news, it is hard for me not to get overwhelmed.  I tend to internalize the bad news and grow it. I wallow in it and everything looks bleak to me.

“A client did not call me back – he must not want me to represent him anymore.”  “The world is falling apart; the political system is broken.”  “The economy is going to tank.”

My guess is that I am not alone in doing this.  It is very difficult to stay positive with all that is happening right now.

Several years ago, I met with a wise life coach.  He shared some materials with me on what he called (and it may be a clinical term) “Distorted Thinking”.  His material originated from Ten Days to Self-Esteem by David Burns.

I have found it to be very useful to review these types of distorted thinking when I get depressed; it helps me to identify problematic thoughts (both mine and those of others) and to attempt to change or discount the thoughts.

Examples of distorted thinking are:

1.  Overgeneralization.  I saw this occurring repeatedly in the discussions with regard to the recent execution.  Conclusions were being drawn about races that, in my mind, were overgeneralizations and completely unnecessary.  (Again, I am not condemning any one side – it happened on both sides.)

2.  Mental filtering.  This type of thinking involves dwelling on the negative and ignoring the positive.

3.  Discounting the positive.  This something that I do often.  I have a tendency to dismiss awards and achievements and instead focus on the mistakes that I have made.

4.  Labeling.  An example of this is if, instead of recognizing that you made a mistake or took a misstep, you conclude that you are “an idiot.”

5.  Jumping to Conclusions.   This type of thinking can involve mind reading (my comment above about why the client did not return my phone call is an example) or fortune-telling (in other words, proclaiming that the economy will never rebound).

The overwhelming effect of distorted thinking is negativity.

I keep a list of the above categories on my desk as a daily reminder to myself to make the effort to remain positive.

Try it. It may work for you as well. 

In yoga this morning our teacher encouraged us to use our breath to “restore integrity.”  I was struck by that phrase. 

Perhaps by trying to focus on the positive in ourselves and others, we can move towards restoring integrity.