recently I got trapped in one of my “downward spiral” thought patterns while having fun which was a not so pleasant experience… back then when I was in therapy for depression I tought myself some methods for detecting and getting rid of unpleasant thoughts – I used the image of a “black dog” (W. Churchill used that image) so all I had to do was “make the black dog go away”
this did not work last week.
Luckily a friend who has a couple more psychological issues was nearby and recognized my thoughs and the mood I was drifting into.
He gave me a new method to get rid of the “black dog” – did you read Harry Potter? The Patronus charm?

“…will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.”

that’s it – even easier than the “black dog” method
It worked instantly because instead of concentrating on something unpleasant (the black dog) I was now concentrating on something which already has a positive bias.

Thank you, you know who you are!