Attempting to self-deceive regarding the positivity of an experience is ineffective.

“You can't simply lie to yourself. You can't simply say, "Oh, well, every experience is a learning experience." Or a terrible thing happens, "Oh, good. I'm just going to say good," and that your body will react as if it's good for you. That's a myth. And frankly, it's a myth that's fairly pervasive in the self-help and self-actualization literature. We can't simply lie to ourselves or, quote, unquote, "fake it until we make it." Neural circuitry is very powerful and very plastic. It can be modified, and it's very context-dependent, but it's not stupid. And when you lie to yourself about whether or not an experience is actually good for you, or not, your brain knows.”