It also might be helpful to mention that, since all the problems caused by believing things are bad are just you feeling bad about them, they can be solved by emotionally acceptance, rather than denial.
“Pretending there is not a lematya in your bed will not make it go away if there is one. You must first admit to yourself the fact that there is a lematya — you must first accept its presence. Then you can call the animal control people and have them come and take it away. But until you first admit that it is there, you are going to have a lematya in your bed every night. It may save your pride not to admit that it is there, but your bed will be increasingly crowded.” — The Vulcan prophet Surak, in Diane Duane’s Spock’s World
(As many young nerds do, I went through a period of Star Trek fandom; this was the form in which I first encountered the same principle known here as the Litany of Gendlin. A lematya is a creature resembling a mix of a tiger and a komodo dragon. Surak’s parable of the lematya is on the subject of acknowledging negative emotions as a step toward moving past them; but it applies as well to acknowledging unpleasant truths of any sort.)
“Pretending there is not a lematya in your bed will not make it go away if there is one. You must first admit to yourself the fact that there is a lematya — you must first accept its presence. Then you can call the animal control people and have them come and take it away. But until you first admit that it is there, you are going to have a lematya in your bed every night. It may save your pride not to admit that it is there, but your bed will be increasingly crowded.”
— The Vulcan prophet Surak, in Diane Duane’s Spock’s World
(As many young nerds do, I went through a period of Star Trek fandom; this was the form in which I first encountered the same principle known here as the Litany of Gendlin. A lematya is a creature resembling a mix of a tiger and a komodo dragon. Surak’s parable of the lematya is on the subject of acknowledging negative emotions as a step toward moving past them; but it applies as well to acknowledging unpleasant truths of any sort.)
I like this metaphor.