Tag Archive for: emotional distress
Practice Living by Your Personal Life Values—Part 1
As I pointed out in earlier posts, emotional distress and its accompanying physiological stress are less the result of events than of the attributions you assign to those events—your thoughts and beliefs about them—and your cognitive…
The Practice of Living Mindfully
Can’t Meditate? The practice of mindfulness is available to everyone. And as the definitions and descriptions in my April 20th post show, mindfulness is not complicated. Still, it isn’t easy to do, for three reasons: 1. It requires…
Authentic Self-Expression and Health Part 2
During the 1950s, psychologist Lawrence LeShan discovered that one way he could know his psychotherapy sessions with hospitalized patients were working was that the nursing staff would begin to complain about those patients—once deemed compliant,…
The Slippery Slope of Optimism
Optimism is the single most frequently cited attribute of healthy and happy people. But who is truly optimistic?
Research psychologist Martin Seligman
found that, to be effective, optimism must be embodied. Putting up a false front of optimism…
Belief Becomes Biology
Beliefs alter physiology to the degree to which we are fused with them. For example, the thought This headache could be a brain tumor could create enormous emotional distress, leading to physiological stress and illness. The ability to step…