Need to Be the Center of the Universe? Think Again!
“The thought ‘so-and-so has betrayed me’ protects us from the more painful thought ‘no one thinks about me.” Stephen Grosz, The Examined Life Most everyone has created dramas in their heads from time to time. Some of these paranoid dramas are based in assumptions we make which are rooted in irrational thinking. It’s easy, when we are feeling especially bad about ourselves, to make an assumption about someone else’s behavior and to connect that behavior to us in derogatory ways. For example, have you ever been walking down a busy street and seen someone coming your direction who is laughing? Just as your eyes focus on this person, their eyes meet yours and suddenly you’ve made the assumption that they are laughing at you for some unknown reason. You shift your eyes to the sidewalk and question yourself “Is it my face? My body size? My clothing? Do I look like a dork?” Then as this person passes you, you look back up and notice she is still laughing and she is on he...