Space L Clottey

Quote Therapy

I’m not [therapy], I’m [quote therapy]

So, you wanna try Quote Therapy eh?

No worries. Sit down, right there.

Good, good.

Now, have you been watching many shows? Cartoons?

Have you been rewinding dozens of times on lines that particularly tickle your fancy? Times when a voice actor says something in a particularly wonderful (or horrible) way? Times when the sentence simply flows, or particularly when it connects to something you already know? A sentence that makes things click, which just like that resolves a decade old mystery in your own personal story?

Good, good. Keep doing that, and keep watching cartoons. They’re your fuel for quote therapy.

It’ll soon become apparent that the more you watch, the more fuel you’ll have. Particularly the more you rewatch, as that’ll cause the quotes to burn into your brain.

The next thing you need to do for quote therapy to work is to keep replaying these quotes, even when you’re not watching anything.

Let the quotes be like lyrics, looping and looping. Let the precise peaks and troughs of the particular voice performance embed themselves into your brain tissue, indenting the words so concretely in your mind that you can’t believe they were ever said any other way.

I was there, you know. At the first war for this garbage planet.

I was there, you know. At the first war for this garbage planet.

I was there, you know. At the first war for this garbage planet.

I saw it with my own eye.

You can’t keep doing this!

You can’t keep doing shitty things, and then feel BAD about yourself like that makes it OK—

You NEED to BE, BETTER.

Activate your own vocal chords. Sing it, say it yourself, round and round.

Naturally work it into everything you can. Say it in conversations, in your blog posts — let the quote of the week be the header to your diary — say it as a joke, over and over, round and round, say it to yourself as you walk, a hundred times before the day is done.

Groove it into your brain.

But don’t force a single step of this — don’t even try.

“What is the point? You’re not [trying] anything.”

Well if it isn’t anything, then why does it [work] so good?

Do this enough, and eventually the simple trigger of “I was there” will bring up the rest of the quote, as if you were predictively texting on your phone.

If it’s close enough, now’s a perfect opportunity to practice snowcloning. Simply take the quote, and swap out any words that stop it from precisely applying to your situation.

Eg. when rewatching a suboptimal episode of a show and showing it to someone else for the first time:

I was there you know, at the first [showing] of this garbage [episode].

But there’s another trigger far more important: the feeling. You must feel it.

Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel [the emotion] in [the quote].

To get this you must feel the way the character feels as they say it. Feel the awe, feel the subtle shades of surprise, feel the terror, feel the aggravation.

You can’t keep doing this!

You can’t keep [x], and then [y] like that makes it [z]

You need, to be, better!

This’ll widen you as a human. If you can access novel emotional states sans the experience, you grow at an atypical speed. But

That doesn’t matter.

What matters is that if you feel it, then the feeling can be your trigger.

If every time you say

For one trillion years I’ve been trapped inside my own decaying dimension, WAITING for a new universe to call my own!

You accurately simulate what it’s like to wait for a trillion years, then when you next experience a similar feeling (say you’re waiting in line at the shops), your brain’ll say:

Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?

The emotion: “I don’t know, I don’t get [outside of this quote] much”

And then you experience the true beauty of quote therapy. Because rather than scrambling with your own, probably ineloquent brain and depth of emotional processing skills, the vagueness of the emotion can snap onto this precise, powerful, well-rehearsed quote and feeling. You can just say:

For one trillion years I’ve been trapped inside [this decaying shop], WAITING for a new [bag of groceries] to call my own!

See how much easier it is?

Look at the pathetic alternative of an inner monologue you could’ve gotten:

Ugh I’m waiting forever this is so boring

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Boring! Boring Boring!

Lame lame lame LAME!

A large part of the benefit of mining quotes from cartoons and why they stick so much more often then quotes from live action media is because cartoons are exaggerated as a result of the medium! Actions can be exaggerated, movements can be exaggerated, and sweet, sweet tone can be exaggerated.

Sure “Ugh I’m waiting forever this is so boring” is probably closer to what you’re experiencing, but which is going to stick more in your mind? That, or:

FoR oNE TrILLiON YeARs I’VE beEN TRaPPEd

Which is more fun to think and to feel, to say and to rehearse? Which is going to be right by your side when you’re losing your mind?

Often times, it’s catharsis to have a quote represent you. If you’re a black belt at low level Quote Therapy, then it’ll be all the easier when you’re in total turmoil, tears streaming down your eyes. It’ll make all the difference whether in that moment you can bring up a quote that you can snap onto between weather your misery for the next hour is comprehensible or not.

I’m tired of running in circles. I’m tired of running in circles. I’m tired of running in circles.

Can you imagine how glorious it feels to be in a state of total confusion with such overpowering emotions that you don’t understand, and to have someone come over, and in a sentence make everything click together in a picture of blinding clarity?

Can you imagine how good that feels?

Well you don’t need to imagine, that’s the Quote Therapy promise.

I’m not a therapist, I’m a therapy horse.

Good luck, and see ya real soon!

(No horses were harmed in the making of this blog post. Know where any of the quotes are from? Tell me!!)


Space L Clottey