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Home > Hopes and Fears

Hopes and Fears

Positive or Negative?

Sometimes thinking about positive emotions and the experiences related to them can be daunting. Experiences that feel good and are typically considered positive can play a role in mental health problems. Also, for many of us it is difficult to think about or focus on positive experiences when we’re feeling low.

As such it can be helpful to take some time to think about the hopes and fears we may have about considering positive experiences. To get you started there are a few
examples below of what some hopes and fears might be.

Hopes and fears

Hope: I will have more positive experiences.
Fear: Positive things only happen to other people.
Hope: Positive experiences will help me during tough times.
Fear: That when I feel positive it may be part of my mental health problems.
Hope: That I can learn when feeling positive is OK and enjoy it.
Fear: Am I being too positive?

Consider more:

1) Can you think of a time when you’ve struggled to appreciate positive experiences or they’ve turned out to be unhelpful?rn2) Can you think of any other hopes or fears you may have about positive experiences?

Important:
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You might want to make notes at this point. These may help you remember things, work out what you want or see how much you’ve changed if you read them in a few years’ time.