Posts Tagged ‘opposite action’
Behavioral Steps to Address Perfectionism
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” – Henry van Dyke Perfectionistic ways of thinking and behaving are often rooted in deep-seated core beliefs that can be quite resistant to change. The need for perfection can be related to closely attaching one’s…
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10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part Two
“Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make for peace and freedom.” – Aldous Huxley In my last post, “10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part One,” we explored a variety of distressing, intense, or difficult emotional…
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10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part One
“The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.” – Jim Rohn When you find yourself experiencing an emotion that is somehow getting in the way of harmonious relationships with others, pursuit of your goals, or living in accordance with your true values, opposite action can be an incredibly…
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Apply Opposite Action to Painful Emotions
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” – Kahlil Gibran Emotions can often be experienced so suddenly or deeply that little time or energy is given to question the facts or happenings that prompted the emotional experience. When emotions feel visceral and real in this way, we may…
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Doing What’s Effective
“Life is not about being right, it is about being effective.” – Marsha Linehan, Ph.D. Dr. Marsha Linehan, founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), contends that it is far more important in life to be effective than it is to be right. At a recent DBT emotion regulation training event that I attended, Dr. Linehan…
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Apply Opposite Action to Guilt & Shame
“The guilty think all talk is of themselves.” – Geoffrey Chaucer In yesterday’s post, I discussed some of the important functional differences between guilt and shame that were discussed at a recent Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) workshop run by Dr. Marsha Linehan on emotion regulation. Guilt and shame can both be very painful emotions to…
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Opposite Action Transforms Powerful Emotions
“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.” – Carl Gustav Jung Emotions color our experience of life with a diverse nuanced range of expression. We are capable of feeling the heights of excitement, love, and pride, as well as the deep lows of sadness, anger, and…
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