if you were a wink, I'd be a nod

People who tout the whole 'power of positive thinking' and 'the secret' piss me off.  Not that I am a cynical person (not entirely anyway) It's all just a little too Pollyanna for my taste.  I prefer my understanding on the matter.  I guess it's just a practical application of the correspondence bias.  We are all wrapped up in ourselves, we are the center of our own universe, therefore we project our own emotions and perspectives onto our interactions with the world around us.  We assume everyone else knows what we are thinking and believes the same things that we believe about ourselves.  So that is how it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because we assume.  For example, my sister was feeling self-conscious that she smelled bad and I said her name and was about to say, "hey do you want to come for a ride in my car with me?" but she immediately got defensive before I could say anything and said "what?! do I smell bad?" so then I'm going to wonder if she in fact does smell bad and then maybe start treating her as such. Ok that was kind of a bad example, but you get the point right? SO while I  may not yet be completely in control of my emotions and reactions, I am at least figuring it all out.  Yeah certain people may still say all the wrong things, but it's not really about all of that or me even, deep down it's about the attention that everyone craves, some more desperate for it than others, but give it to them, don't react, and conflict will be avoided.  So when my dad tells me I'm a bad driver and I make other drivers want to shoot me, well part of it I'm feeling a little sensitive at the moment about being a less-than-stellar driver maybe and he is projecting his deeply ingrained sexist view towards women drivers.