You know you're a therapist when...

[judecorp]

...you start making little cognitive restructuring/strategic intervention type assignments for yourself. Yes, I just gave myself homework.

For the next week, I will spend 15 minutes a night thinking of all of the ills of the world, and another 5-10 minutes ruminating on my contribution to, and responsibility for, them.

Yeah.

Comments

Re: Why?

[juliann.livejournal.com]

Yeah but if you do come up with reasons (avoid environmental topics!) you'll feel guilt forever.

Re: Why?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I already do.

Catholic School, remember?

(And when I was a child, I would make myself sick worrying about the environment. So I think I've completely worn myself out of that. I gave myself a kiddie ulcer. Sometimes it sucks being the too smart kid.)

How Christina learned about statistics.

[kungfoogirl.livejournal.com]

When I was in 4th Grade, I learned about statistics. Probability, to be exact.

My teacher sat me down. And she showed me a black felt bag, filled with marbles. Most were blue or black or whatever. But a few were red. She asked me to take marbles from the bag, and to tell her when I got a red one. Obviously, I pulled a BUNCH more blue ones than red ones. The red ones were very rare. And because of that, I remembered the number of times I pulled a red marble.

After it was all said and done, she explained how the red marbles are the things in life that we really ought to worry about. They are rare. They are mostly random. You can't predict them with any useful accuracy. BUT you remember whent they happen. They are very salient. The impact that these events have is sometimes astronomical.

So, the point that my 4th Grade teacher made was this: Look. These things happen. They are unhappy things. But you, little Christina, can't change the fact that they will happen and you can't fix things after they happen. So don't stress. Don't worry. Try and focus on the good things. Accept the bad things, and deal with them as best as you can.

And my little 4th Grade mind remembered it. All these years later, I still remember it.

Thats my little lesson for the afternoon.

Re: How Christina learned about statistics.

[yarnaddict.livejournal.com]

I wish my fourth grade teacher had taught me that lesson.