Category: Mastery Moments
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Caretakers deserve attention too
Being a caretaker to someone with chronic pain can be quite stressful. Often the needs of caretakers are overlooked and not addressed. They need help in dealing with their own reaction to their loved one’s problems. They also need help aligning their own motivation and their support of their loved one’s motivation to recover. When…
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Faulty thinking causes suffering
Non-evolutionary based thinking does not help to alleviate suffering. It tends to exacerbate it. This type of thinking includes judgmental thinking, rationalizations, assumptions, magical thinking, and thoughts based on a negative belief system. These kinds of thoughts will disempower you and make it harder for you to cope. It will increase your overall suffering. Make…
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Remember the ‘Rule of the Useful’ for past and present thoughts
In managing stress, it is helpful to remember that the only thoughts you want in your mind in the present are those that help you to get what you need. Thoughts about the past or the future that do not help you in the moment are not useful and will increase your stress. Always check…
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Do not get caught up in flareup thinking
When you have chronic pain, flareups of your pain can become increasingly traumatic. t’s not unusual to have stressful negative thoughts like; “my pain will never end! I cannot believe this is happening again! Oh no, what am I going to do!” What usually follows these thoughts are negative emotions like anxiety and anger, frustration,…
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Do not get caught up in undesirable reality of things
If you do not judge the realities of life as either good or bad, negative, or positive, they are simply events. If you are willing to embrace them with neutrality, you will be in a more empowered position to address and resolve the realities that you do not find pleasing. Most of us had difficulty…
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Do not get caught in the in-betweens
Your life is always in motion whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. Everything is always in transition. While this may be uncomfortable, it also presents us with continuing opportunities and possibilities. If we are resistant to change, we will be caught in the in-between zone in which we cannot act and cannot see…
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Beware of fanning the fear mind it distorts cognitive structure and logic
Fear is an elevated level of anxiety. It is a signal of threats to your needs. If you become possessed by this emotion and swept away by it, you have fallen into a raging river where all you can do is try and keep your emotional head above water. The current will take you further…
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Suffering equals the cost of damage to needs
What creates suffering is experiencing the damage to our needs. The more important the need is, the greater the level of potential suffering. We need to learn that suffering can be lessened by embracing the reality that, like it or not, we can be hurt, physically and emotionally. Some suffering is understandable when we experience…
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You need to know what you are giving to get through what you must do
People with chronic pain tend to underestimate how much they must give to recover from chronic pain. It will tax their way of coping. it will tax them emotionally, psychologically, and existentially. It may require major changes in how they operate as people and how they get their needs met. Make sure to be aware…
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Beware of your anti-potential actions and interactions
What supports potential are the tools offered in your existential immune system, the main components of which are thoughts and feelings. If your thinking is counter-evolutionary, if your feelings are repressed or suppressed, your access to your potential will be undermined and undermine the quality and power in your encounters. When you are challenged by…