She brought me cookies!

[flying_stag]

Who? Helga and James (and Sirius if he wakes up)
Open? No.
Where/When? Hospital Wing, afternoon the Tuesday after the duel with Fenrir.
What? James is having thoughts that bother him and after him thinking that maybe more pain potion would help, Helga has offered to come up and talk to James, to make him think instead of avoid. Sirius is asleep

Comments

[blessed_broc]

Helga was a bit nervous. She had heard a lot more about James Potter than any one person should really have said about themselves, and as much as she tried to not put stock in rumors, she knew far from what could be considered any sort of truth about him

[blessed_broc]

"Now you listen here," Helga started, shaking her finger in his direction. "That is no way to act if you want to better yourself! That's just another bit you have to put behind you on your path to better-ness!" She took a bite from the cookie, chewed, and swallowed before continuing. "If you keep telling yourself the same thing--that you're useless and can't be cured--then you really will not get anywhere! Positive thinking is the first step."

[flying_stag]

James watched her finger, confusedly, then nodded. "Positive thinking. If you think that'll cure me, then give me some instruction in the matter?"

[blessed_broc]

"Er..." she said, tilting her head to the side. "You mean to instruct you on thinking positively?" She pursed her lips and shrugged. "I guess... don't put yourself down so much, for starters. Have confidence!"

[flying_stag]

James raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that part of what gets me into trouble in the first place, thinking nothing could possibly go wrong?"

[blessed_broc]

"That's step two," Helga said firmly and nodded. "Confidence in yourself is good, but step two is to realise your limits. Recognize that things can and do go wrong. You don't really have to think out all the facets of your plan before you put it into action, but after the deed is done, be sure to reflect back. I suppose that would be step three: reflection."

[flying_stag]

"All right. So first, think I'm awesome, then think my plans might go wrong, then think about what went wrong?" That seemed simple enough. All he had to do was do what he was doing now, but with the added step of not thinking his plan was flawless. He didn't even have to stop executing his plans. This was easy!

[blessed_broc]

Hmm maybe she had phrased something wrong. "Well, I didn't say to think that you are awesome. I mean, I imagine you are, but I can't say much having only really just started talking to you. There is a difference between having confidence in yourself and thinking that you are completely awesome." Helga finished off the cookie and dusted the crumbs off on her robe before taking a sip of some milk.

[flying_stag]

James frowned. "What kind of difference? Confidence is thinking that I'm awesome, isn't it?" Honestly, he knew the meaning of the word confidence. He was the most confident person he knew.

[blessed_broc]

"To be confident in yourself means to have full trust in your abilities, of course. But the key to that is the reliability of the person you are having confidence in." She tapped the edge of her mug. "Being recklessly 'awesome', as you think of it, is not being very reliable, is it? Remember step two: Your limits. You have to realise the extend of your ability to do something. Confidence in yourself is not all just about charging into things because you think oh man I can totally do this I am so awesome. It is also being confident in your limits and your faults and accepting those--not ignoring them only to add them to your reflection later."

[flying_stag]

James didn't quite follow. How could he have confidence in his abilities and still have limits? It was hard to sort through. "So how can I be confident in myself if I have to think about how limited I am all the time? I can't be confident and limited at the same time. No one can. It's impossible." James picked up another cookie and stared at it as though it held the answers.

[blessed_broc]

Helga laughed, shaking her head at the idea. "Having confidence while recognizing limits help you to realise what your true strengths are. This way, it will make you stop and think before you try to do something. Things like is this really for the best or is there another way I can go about this."

[flying_stag]

James shook his head. "I'll never remember that, not in the heat of the moment." This was far too difficult.

[blessed_broc]

"It does take a bit of practice," Helga admitted. "But once you get it down, it will come naturally!"

[flying_stag]

"But I'm not sure I can do it in the first place. That's the problem. It's... It's impossible. I don't know how everyone else manages to... to focus like that. I can't do it, though."

[blessed_broc]

"Well, we could give it a bit of practice?" She set her mug down on the table and folded her hands in her lap. "But... before we do that: Have you gotten everything off your chest that you wanted to talk about? Might be good to finish that up first before moving on. Which would be more good practice: Seeing a task through to the end as tempting as something else is."