Today I Will Nourish My Inner Martyr

Book excerpt: Take comfort in cynicism? Find pleasure in pessimism? Think the high road is unscenic at best? Then this desktop display of affirmations-gone-wrong will speak to the true you. Flip through various mantras that celebrate the impressive ways we distress ourselves, then display your particular paranoia, mood, or obsession of the day. Everyone who passes by your desk will consider themselves warned. Of course, these affirmations will give you new ways to pity and excuse yourself, but you might also learn to actually appreciate something: that your mind isn’t as unhealthy as it could be.