Submitted by John L on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 9:08am.
As I began reading this book I was reminded of a quick fix, self-help, follow this and your life will be wonderful thing. As I read further it became clear, as stated, “quick fixes rarely last.” As outlined these skills are intended to provide the substance for improving ones ability to endure adversity in a healthy manner.
The one important aspect of this and any other set of rules, guidelines, roadmap, and inner-journey is the person’s willingness to do the work, follow the rules, and walk the talk. There are many people that get involved in the “flavor of the month” program to improve life with the expectation that this time it will “fix” me. Obviously it does not and never will work that way. The payoff must be of importance and a person must believe it can happen for them and be willing to do the work to get there.
In an attempt to simplify an otherwise confusing process, this book uses the ABC concept to make it so a person can say to themselves, “ABC, this is really simple” maybe I can do this.
The “A” is for adversity. We all have it and as this book points out, it is our perception of the adversity that really counts. Are we allowing our experiences of the past dictate how we view the present? Do we have a skewed perception of the threat due to feelings of inadequacy or some other distortion of reality?
As the book points out, “people process the world in a way that often leads to positive illusions—general, enduring patterns of error and bias that lead to unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control, and unrealistic optimism”. Ask any alcoholic and they can stop drinking if they wanted to. This is the positive side of unrealistic optimism. People tend to weigh on the positive side, but there are those that go the other way, being the victim and giving in to a perceived sense of powerlessness that is paralyzing.
The next step as outlined in the book is to examine the “ticker tape” that is constantly running in our brains. I was left with some questioning how this differs from the self talk we engage in as the way it is explained this is at a deeper level than what I would define as self talk. The steps outlined for the evaluation of these areas of cognition would be what I would classify as mindfulness. The specific areas of focus presented shed some light and organize ideas that can be looked at to identify thinking and feeling errors.
As Mark presented in our last class this process is more difficult in stressful situations. Because of our biological fight or flight processes, the ability to examine a broad range of options does not exist when plagued by stress making it difficult to employ the tactics outlined in the text. Therefore the authors appropriately include a section on stress reduction exercises. The use of Progressive Muscle Relaxation is especially useful in a wide variety of situations. I have seen positive imagery used in the emergency room when a nurse is preparing a patient to receive a shot of medication.
In summation, the material presented is well thought out and researched. It provides a workable program that “should” prove effective for anyone willing to put in the time and practice to go through the process. I found myself growing tired of the “fortune 500” references. I think this would put off someone who has a negative self image and would be a way for them to say this won’t work for me. A shorter process that I use to ground myself and evaluate my ticker tape is to recite the Serenity Prayer.