Track 11: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Stoicism began to impact modern psychiatry when some of its principles were applied by Swiss psychiatrist Pail Dobois at the turn of the 20th Century. This approach was debunked by the Freudians, who were, in turn, debunked. Stoic influence made a comeback in the ‘50s on the part of Albert Ellis and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), followed in the ‘70s by Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and its founder, Aaron T. Beck. Hence:
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Is based on stoic philosophy
Try one, or both, and you will see
Your life go by more pleasantly
Track 12: Find a Way
From the aphorism list. This is actually four of them strung together. But I couldn’t deal with the first one at all:
Find a way to love everything that’s happened.
I tried to, but I was unable to––I couldn’t find a way to love child rape, or the Holocaust, or torture, or countless other horrible things humans have done or still do. I’ve recently been introduced to the idea of being grateful for the entirety of one’s experiences. At first, I had a problem with that, too. I had a bigger problem with how the billions of people, since there’s ever been people, who’ve experienced relentless lifelong horror were supposed to get behind that idea. But, on a personal level it made sense. All the shit things that have happened to me were a walk in the park compared to what most of humanity has gone through. And all my experiences have made me who I am, which is one unbelievably lucky person. So, I made an edit:
Find a way to love everything that’s happened to you.
That I could handle. But still, I thought, that’s one tough spiritual challenge. Then I thought, can I envision a more difficult spiritual challenge? I’ve been trying for several months now. No luck at all. Hmmm. And so, the four aphorisms:
Find a way to love everything that’s happened to you
There is always something you can do
Two ears, one mouth, for a reason
Learn something from everyone
I especially liked the last one. That takes me/us back to the idea every person on earth probably knows something I don’t, something that would do me well to learn.
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