Mastering Your Own Thoughts
Reading more about cognitive therapy, Aaron T Beck's Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders.
I can't say exactly why, but this subject fascinates me, and many years ago I believe gave me the tools to manage my own unruly chaotic mindscape. In the midst of depression and what only can be nebulously described as "the edge of the abyss" (right after the big Loma Prieta earthquake), I was recommended by a therapist a mass media book that was based upon cognitive therapy principles, and it saved me. Or, enabled me to move back from the darkening void of depression and insanity and transcend the binary thinking (cause and effect) that leads to a self-defeatist, deterministic life view that can destroy a person trapped by this mode of thinking.
Cognitive therapy in a nutshell posits that depression & emotional disorders can be traced to a system of thinking and thought patterns in the sufferer which are at odds with reality. So the depressed person comes to think that their thoughts (and the tangle of irrationality and ill-logic they contain) is reality, when in fact such thinking is a distortion of reality. (I believe William Glasser's whole "Reality Therapy" originates from this school of psychology.) A depressed or emotionally disturbed person exhibits irrational behavior because his thinking is irrational, yet because they mistake their erroneous thinking for reality, their thoughts can cause them great suffering and problems.
What's so interesting about this idea is that cognitive therapy focuses on the stream of thoughts that lie just under or out of reach from most people, and which happen at such lightening speed that the person is barely away they have them. Yet always at the heart of emotional response or disturbance is a series of un-empirical, irrational, and faulty logic structure that leads to the emotional response. This is important, because part of what causes the depressed person to feel so helpless is the (invalid) deterministic belief that they are slave to their emotions, to forces beyond their control, and that their emotions define reality for them. Yet, when you analyze the series of lightening-quick thoughts and logic patterns related to the emotional response or disturbance, you find that these thought patterns always precede the emotional response. By studying these thoughts, and how much they differ with the reality most of us share, the patient can understand that their problems are based upon their own thinking rather than forces beyond their control. When these thoughts are made conscious, then they can be controlled, changed, or simply not believed in any more.
What I also like about this theory is how it relates to Yoga and meditation, in that the person can learn to transcend the hurly burly din of the mind's linguistic racket and begin to discover a deeper, more meaningful self in the process. It's often the habitual, repetitive, and mostly unconscious types of thinking that leads to stress, poor posture, and as well, depression.
I am endlessly amazed at how powerful our mind is, and when we do not examine our thinking, who we are, and how our thinking starts to stand in for reality, we will always find trouble. Left unchecked, the mind will run rampant, and depending upon our upbringing (and the patterns of behavior our parents modeled for us), run our lives. When closely examined, the mind can be our ally, and enable us to become whoever we want to be.
Reading more about cognitive therapy, Aaron T Beck's Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders.
I can't say exactly why, but this subject fascinates me, and many years ago I believe gave me the tools to manage my own unruly chaotic mindscape. In the midst of depression and what only can be nebulously described as "the edge of the abyss" (right after the big Loma Prieta earthquake), I was recommended by a therapist a mass media book that was based upon cognitive therapy principles, and it saved me. Or, enabled me to move back from the darkening void of depression and insanity and transcend the binary thinking (cause and effect) that leads to a self-defeatist, deterministic life view that can destroy a person trapped by this mode of thinking.
Cognitive therapy in a nutshell posits that depression & emotional disorders can be traced to a system of thinking and thought patterns in the sufferer which are at odds with reality. So the depressed person comes to think that their thoughts (and the tangle of irrationality and ill-logic they contain) is reality, when in fact such thinking is a distortion of reality. (I believe William Glasser's whole "Reality Therapy" originates from this school of psychology.) A depressed or emotionally disturbed person exhibits irrational behavior because his thinking is irrational, yet because they mistake their erroneous thinking for reality, their thoughts can cause them great suffering and problems.
What's so interesting about this idea is that cognitive therapy focuses on the stream of thoughts that lie just under or out of reach from most people, and which happen at such lightening speed that the person is barely away they have them. Yet always at the heart of emotional response or disturbance is a series of un-empirical, irrational, and faulty logic structure that leads to the emotional response. This is important, because part of what causes the depressed person to feel so helpless is the (invalid) deterministic belief that they are slave to their emotions, to forces beyond their control, and that their emotions define reality for them. Yet, when you analyze the series of lightening-quick thoughts and logic patterns related to the emotional response or disturbance, you find that these thought patterns always precede the emotional response. By studying these thoughts, and how much they differ with the reality most of us share, the patient can understand that their problems are based upon their own thinking rather than forces beyond their control. When these thoughts are made conscious, then they can be controlled, changed, or simply not believed in any more.
What I also like about this theory is how it relates to Yoga and meditation, in that the person can learn to transcend the hurly burly din of the mind's linguistic racket and begin to discover a deeper, more meaningful self in the process. It's often the habitual, repetitive, and mostly unconscious types of thinking that leads to stress, poor posture, and as well, depression.
I am endlessly amazed at how powerful our mind is, and when we do not examine our thinking, who we are, and how our thinking starts to stand in for reality, we will always find trouble. Left unchecked, the mind will run rampant, and depending upon our upbringing (and the patterns of behavior our parents modeled for us), run our lives. When closely examined, the mind can be our ally, and enable us to become whoever we want to be.
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