Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this website, my book, and the Community Education course I teach at the College of Marin, is to teach people how to live a vibrant, meaningful life through the cultivation of self-empowerment and self-efficacy. In this weekly Q&A column, I post questions from students and from people who attend my presentations along with my answers.

Here is this week’s question:

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: What is a simple example of what it is like to begin to recognize the tyranny of negative thinking?

ANSWER: Example: It seems as if I am being judged negatively for dressing a certain way or behaving a certain way. Then, thanks to my practice of looking for evidence to support the assumption, I am able to come to the realization that I have no evidence at all that I am actually being judged, and that it is all in my mind.

In addition, thanks to my mindfulness practice, I come to the realization that even when I really am being judged negatively by others, I have a choice as to whether I want to change in order to avoid being judged, or whether I want to continue doing what I’m doing, without being negatively affected by the judgment.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

If you would like to ask me something, you can type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not necessarily appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.