You don’t control the guy shouting random things in the street, but you do control how you react to what you hear. Understanding that thoughts (something you experience) are different from thinking (a reaction you engage in) can expose a way out of struggling with your mental health.
We could also call this: Recovery is like rowing. You’ll be bad at both until you’re not. And then you’ll just push harder. If you’re working with a personal trainer on your physical fitness, it’s not strange if you expect to work with somebody that’s in better shape than you, that practices the skills you want […]
Yes. The answer is an unequivocal, irrefutable yes. We can see this in anecdotal personal experiences and in research. Let’s start with an anecdote and then we’ll explore some research and what it might mean for you on your own journey. In the past, I struggled with a bunch of different mental illness diagnoses. The […]
There’s this old Buddhist story about a king that proposes a game to a group of monks. They must compete to identify an animal in a dark room. Whichever monk identifies the animal first will become the head monk at a temple the king is building. Eager to demonstrate their wisdom to the king, to […]
One thing I found key to recovery was preparing to walk away from the illness. After years of fighting, I didn’t know how to live without mental health problems to manage. My existence was just a reaction to controlling anxiety. I only knew how to feel good by first feeling bad and then controlling that […]
A solar eclipse is coming and that can only mean one thing: it’s apocalypse prophecy season! The rationalizing people do with prophesies is a useful way to explore magical thinking. You might not believe the world is about to end but understanding how people arrive at those conclusions can help you spot your own compulsive […]
A recent study in the Canadian province of Quebec, surveying the sexual fantasies and behaviors of 1040 people, found that around 45% had fantasized about doing things the DSM 5 labels as atypical or paraphilic, and about 33% had acted on those fantasies. You can check out the study, published in the Journal of Sex […]