Psychologist Albert Ellis says that if you tend to have “rational thoughts“, it will be strange – or very casual – that you may feel emotionally disturbed, since there is a “chain” or sequence, between thought, emotion and behavior, so that if you want to change an irrational behavior that causes you discomfort or emotional suffering, what you must change is the “irrational” thought that originates such emotion and behavior.
Before fully entering the list of “irrational thoughts” that we usually handle on a daily basis, let’s see their features and characteristics:
1st. Radicality: It makes you see everything black or white; there is no mid point.
2nd. Generalization: In your internal and public dialogue, you usually use expressions such as “always”, “never”, “everyone”, “nobody”, which leads you to lose clarity and objectivity of thought.
3rd. Catastrophism: It makes you see people as terrible or evil, and it makes you see your daily events as tragic or as a punishment.
4th. Distortion of reality: Idealize or demonize people, things or situations easily, which can cause aversion to yourself, to people and to life.
5th. Exaggeration: Exaggerated demand that becomes obsession with perfectionism.
Irrational thoughts become rigid rules that determine your way of being. These are your way of seeing life, which you are not willing to question and less to change.
Irrational thoughts are responsible for your emotional and relation conflicts. It is well worth locating them and replacing them with others that are healthy.
This is precisely the step number one – learn to think – one, two, three by adulthood.
Until next Thursday.
by Antonio Alonzo Ruiz
Antonio Alonzo Ruiz, is a 60-year-old Yucatecan graduated from the School of Philosophy and Theology at the San Ildefonso Archdiocesan Seminary in Yucatán. Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist from the Hispanic University of Mexico, specializing in cognitive impairment, psychostimulation and psychological intervention in older adults, by the MATIA Gerontology Institute of San Sebastian, Spain. He has 32 years of experience working directly with seniors and families.
Antonio Alonzo Ruiz, clinical psychologist, UVHM.
Management of Emotions and Aging.
Facebook: Antonio Alonzo
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