maiato
Banned
I got to read this text some minutes ago from the book "Feeling Good". Found it very good so i decided to share with u all:
" Feelings Aren't Facts
At this pont you may be asking yourself, "Okay. I understand that my depression results from my negative thoughts because my outlook on life changes enormously when my moods go upr or down. But if my negative thoughts are so distorted, how do I continualy get fooled? I can think as clearly and realistically as the next person, so if what I am telling myself is irrational, why does it seem so right?"
Even though your depressing thoughts may be distorted, they nevertheless create a powerful illusion of truth. Let me expose the basis for the deception in blunt terms - your feelings are not facts! In fact, your feelings, per se, don't even count - except as a mirror of the way you are thinking. If your perceptions make no sense, the feelings they create will be as absurd as the images reflected in the trick mirrors at an amusement park. But these abnorma emotions feel just as valid and realistic as the genuine feelings created by undistorted thoughts, so you automatically attribute truth to them. This why depression is such a powerfull form of mental black magic.
Once you invite depression through an "automatic" series of cognitive distortions, your feelings and actions will reinforce each other in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle.Because you believe whatever your depressed brain tells you, you find yourself feeling negative about almost everything. This reaction accurs in milliseconds, too quicly for you even to be aware of it. The negative emotions feels realistic and in turn lends an aura of credibility to the distorted thought which created it. The cycle goes on and on, and you are eventually trapped. The mental prison is an illusion, a hoax you have inadvertently created, but it seems real because it feels real.
What is the key to releasing yourself from your emotional prison? Simply this: Your thoughts create your emotions; therefore your emotions cannot prove that your thoughts are accurate. Unpleasant feelings merely indicate that you are thinking something negative and believing it. Your emotions follow your thoughts just as surely as baby ducks follow their mother. But the fact that the baby ducks follow faithfully along doesn't prove that the mother knows where she is going!
Let's examine your equation, " I feel, therefore I am." This attitude that emotions reflect a kind of self-evident, ultimate truth is not unique to depressed people. Most psychotherapists today share the conviction that becoming more aware of your feelings and expressing them more openly
represent emotional maturity. The implication is that your feelings represent a higher reality, a personal integrity, a truth beyond question.
My position is quite different. Your feelings, per se, are not necessarily special at all. In fact, to the extent that your negative emotions are based on mental distortions - as is all too often the case - they can hardly be viewed as desirabe.
Do I mean you should get rid of all emotions? Do I want you turn into a robot? No. I want to teach you to avoid painful feelings based on mental distortions, because they are neither valid nor desirable. I believe that once you have learnerd how to perceive life more realistically you will experience an enhance emotional life with greater appreciation for genuine sadness - wich lacks distortion - as well as joy. "
" Feelings Aren't Facts
At this pont you may be asking yourself, "Okay. I understand that my depression results from my negative thoughts because my outlook on life changes enormously when my moods go upr or down. But if my negative thoughts are so distorted, how do I continualy get fooled? I can think as clearly and realistically as the next person, so if what I am telling myself is irrational, why does it seem so right?"
Even though your depressing thoughts may be distorted, they nevertheless create a powerful illusion of truth. Let me expose the basis for the deception in blunt terms - your feelings are not facts! In fact, your feelings, per se, don't even count - except as a mirror of the way you are thinking. If your perceptions make no sense, the feelings they create will be as absurd as the images reflected in the trick mirrors at an amusement park. But these abnorma emotions feel just as valid and realistic as the genuine feelings created by undistorted thoughts, so you automatically attribute truth to them. This why depression is such a powerfull form of mental black magic.
Once you invite depression through an "automatic" series of cognitive distortions, your feelings and actions will reinforce each other in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle.Because you believe whatever your depressed brain tells you, you find yourself feeling negative about almost everything. This reaction accurs in milliseconds, too quicly for you even to be aware of it. The negative emotions feels realistic and in turn lends an aura of credibility to the distorted thought which created it. The cycle goes on and on, and you are eventually trapped. The mental prison is an illusion, a hoax you have inadvertently created, but it seems real because it feels real.
What is the key to releasing yourself from your emotional prison? Simply this: Your thoughts create your emotions; therefore your emotions cannot prove that your thoughts are accurate. Unpleasant feelings merely indicate that you are thinking something negative and believing it. Your emotions follow your thoughts just as surely as baby ducks follow their mother. But the fact that the baby ducks follow faithfully along doesn't prove that the mother knows where she is going!
Let's examine your equation, " I feel, therefore I am." This attitude that emotions reflect a kind of self-evident, ultimate truth is not unique to depressed people. Most psychotherapists today share the conviction that becoming more aware of your feelings and expressing them more openly
represent emotional maturity. The implication is that your feelings represent a higher reality, a personal integrity, a truth beyond question.
My position is quite different. Your feelings, per se, are not necessarily special at all. In fact, to the extent that your negative emotions are based on mental distortions - as is all too often the case - they can hardly be viewed as desirabe.
Do I mean you should get rid of all emotions? Do I want you turn into a robot? No. I want to teach you to avoid painful feelings based on mental distortions, because they are neither valid nor desirable. I believe that once you have learnerd how to perceive life more realistically you will experience an enhance emotional life with greater appreciation for genuine sadness - wich lacks distortion - as well as joy. "
