De-Stressing “Life’s Sea of Troubles” with Rational Thought
Posted on February 07, 2016 by Sarah Phillips, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
This article asserts that rational thought helps mitigate the stresses ( positive and negative) of life.
Paulina was very excited as she told me about being promoted to vice-president of a well known bank. However, she quickly added “I don’t think I’m the most qualified. They should have chosen Susan who is older than me. I don’t think I know enough- this job is more than I can handle. I think I have fooled them all." Within ten seconds, Paulina felt scared, insecure, and anxious. Sound familiar? According to Albert Ellis and other cognitive behaviorists, we all tell ourselves irrational thoughts at times even during times of positive stress such as the above. Though we are rational creatures, we can be incredibly irrational much of the time and still be considered normal!
Obviously, the more rational we can train ourselves to think, the easier we can handle life’s “….sea of troubles, “to borrow Shakespeare’s phrase.
A psychiatrist named Maxie Maultsby decided to define a rational thought, and he concluded that such a thought must meet at least three of the following criteria:
1) It must be true. 2) It must be life preserving (e.g. not a suicidal thought). 3) It must get you your long and short term goals. 4) It must keep you feeling the way you want to feel. 5) It must help you avoid significant conflict with others.If a thought (or thoughts) does meet at least three of these criteria, then it is rational and you can think it! However if, like Paulina’s thoughts, they do not meet the criteria, it is wise to throw them out and substitute rational thoughts such as “I am qualified even though I am younger, or I am capable of handling the job because I have proved myself on many occasions.”
Counselors such as Robert McGhee in "The Search for Significance “tell us that we are all worthwhile because God loves us. In addition, why would we have been born with the capacity for rational thought if we were not supposed to use it? If we can accept this “thinking,” we can more easily handle the positive and negative stresses of life and minimize those…. “Sea of troubles
Written by Sarah Phillips. Sarah has a Master’s Degree in Psychology(M.S.), is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor(L.M.H.C.) in Florida, a National Certified Counselor(N.C.C.), a National Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor(C.C.M.H.C.), and a YB12 Life Coach.
