A thought may be "true" yet still prevent you from living your life's purpose. Choose thoughts that serve you. Dear Friends,
Today I'm bringing you an interview with Eric Maisel, PhD, about his course You Are What You Think. While preparing for this interview, I took a deep look at the course and found it to be packed with wonderfully insightful ideas that weren't at all complicated to integrate into my own life. I always teach that healing doesn't need to be complicated, and you will find that concept here. I hope you enjoy this talk with Eric.
Madisyn Taylor: Briefly, what is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)?
Eric Maisel: For thousands of years, natural philosophers and spiritual leaders have accurately pinpointed our thoughts as a primary source of our suffering. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a contemporary version of that long tradition. Therapists and other helpers working this way ask you to notice what you are thinking, reject thoughts that aren't serving you, and replace them with thoughts that do serve you.
There are two questions that come up when we ask what will help us meet life's challenges, heal emotional distress, and deal with states of being associated with depression, anxiety, and addiction. The first is, "What's causing it?" The second is, "What helps?" Many kinds of answers have been offered to both questions. One consistent answer to "What's causing it?" is "How we think," and one consistent answer to the second question of what helps is to "Take charge of what you think." Clients who actively engage in this work invariably see positive results. If you think "I'm worthless" or "I have no chance" or "I need more Scotch" and replace those thoughts with "I'm worth a great deal" and "I absolutely have a chance" and "Time for an AA meeting," you have done yourself a world of good. There are lots of things that can help, but getting a grip on your thoughts may be what helps most.
MT: What does "You are what you think," this course's title, mean?
EM: Each of us tells ourselves a story about life all the time. Generally speaking, that story is rather negative and sometimes downright despairing. Millions of people have decided--just out of conscious awareness and where they can't quite hear it--that life is a cheat, that they have failed themselves, and that they and their efforts don't much matter. Since this is what they think, this then also becomes what they feel and how they act. Thinking "life is scary" naturally leads to anxiety, thinking "I don't matter" can naturally lead to depression, and continual thoughts like "I'm completely overwhelmed" can eventually lead to addiction. The thought is linked to your moods and behaviors.
Most people do not realize that thinking what are objectively true thoughts may not serve them. "My sister was rude again" or "I doubt that the world cares about my poetry" or "I have so many errands to run" may be perfectly true thoughts that are better disputed and rejected if what you are trying to do is sit down and write poetry for an hour. Thinking "I have so many errands to run" makes it very hard to get permission from yourself to spend that hour writing poetry. That innocent-sounding "true" thought has successfully prevented you from living one of your life purposes. It is in this profound sense that we are indeed "what we think."
MT: In lesson two you write, "If you're smart, sensitive, and creative, I'm guessing that you're also regularly troubled." This sentence really spoke to me. What do you mean by this?
EM: I have identified many of the special sources of pain and difficulty that smart, sensitive, creative people regularly face. These include the deep anti-intellectual strain in most cultures, where the thinkers, artists, and professionals are always targeted by authoritarian leaders; by what I've dubbed "the smart gap," that is, the great distance between what you perceive to be your talents and abilities and the intellectual or creative work you feel called to do; and the pain that comes with ending up in a small corner of a large universe.
The headlines are that life is challenging and that the creative life is doubly challenging. Creatives have extra meaning problems because they are reluctant to accept received meaning and want to know for themselves, which can make them doubt the meaningfulness of life; extra financial problems because none of the arts pay well unless you're a celebrity on top of their game; extra personality issues because in order to maintain their integrity and their individuality, creatives can become obsessive, cranky, and oppositional; extra anxiety issues because the creative process is in fact the activity of making one critical choice after another, and the very act of choosing provokes anxiety; and extra mood issues because they are often plagued by a background case of the blues caused by meaning coming and abruptly going. And much more!
MT: I have to admit I laughed so hard when I read this sentence in your course and shared it with some employees who also had a great laugh: "There are serious things that you might try so as to stop caustic repetitions (thought patterns) of that sort. However, there are also amusing and goofy things to try. Here is an amusing and goofy one. Simply change one word of the thought. Put in any new word you like. Instead of thinking, "I have no chance," think "I have no socks" or "I have no celery" or "Goats have no chance." Silly, isn't it? But who's to say that silly can't also be brilliant? Tell briefly about how and why this works to alter thought patterns.
EM: One of my degrees is in philosophy, and my focus was contemporary linguistic philosophy. If a leader keeps saying "war is peace" (think of Animal Farm and Orwell's other writings), doesn't "war" begin to sound very benign? If a leader keeps saying "all is good" when a lot isn't good, aren't a lot of folks going to be seduced into thinking that "all is good" even if they can't see that goodness for themselves? If you use language in one way, it can support you, but if you use it in another way, it can sabotage you. If you repeatedly say, "I have no chance," that repeated demoralization really does matter. But if you change that to "I have no celery" or "I have no animal crackers," all that does is send you off shopping. Changing our inner language, in serious ways or in silly ways, really does help and really does matter.
MT: In your course, you write that we are kidnapping neurons and wearing ourselves out when we engage in negative self-talk. This really struck a chord with me: that I was depleting myself from neurons that could be used for something so much greater. Talk to me about this.
EM: Our brain is made up of a large number of neurons, on the order of several billions. That sounds like an enormous number, but we have to remember that it takes millions of neurons, often hundreds of millions of neurons, to have a thought. Thinking means giving neurons over to particular thoughts. If you are using your neurons on thoughts like "I hate life" or "Why didn't I give him a piece of my mind?" or "the yard needs weeding," then you have hundreds of millions fewer neurons available to solve your problems, create your symphony, or think pleasurable or soothing thoughts. This is actually simple, straightforward physiology. We think because nature has built our brain a certain way, as a network of interconnecting neurons that do the work of thinking, and if we are employing neurons one way then they aren't available to be employed another way. Indeed, the main way we honor the creative process is by getting quiet--that is, silencing all those thoughts that are using neurons--so that all of our neurons are available to bubble up creative ideas. I guess you could call thinking a zero-sum game; if you are worrying about your overgrown grass, you can't also be composing your Symphony No. 9.
MT: Can you share a success story with my readers of somebody that has gone through this course and their results?
EM: Certainly. There are many. One client who dearly wanted to write a novel--she had the story clearly in mind--was preventing herself from starting because she kept thinking thoughts like "I don't know how to write a novel," "I'm not imaginative," "I have to focus on making a living," and other thoughts that were not supportive of her writing dream. She quickly came to understand that such thoughts, even if some of them were true, weren't serving her. So she decided to use as a thought substitute the single word "process" to stand for her acceptance of the fact that she had to begin as a beginner and that the process, whether easy or hard, had to be endured for the sake of finally writing her novel. She then endeavored to align her behaviors with her new thoughts, since "right thinking" without "right acting" doesn't get novels written or dreams fulfilled. She instituted a morning writing practice, which to begin with amounted to only 20 minutes a day, and by holding words like "practice," "routine," and "regularity" as sacred words, she was able to write virtually every day. In six months' time, she had the draft of her novel completed and subsequently found a literary agent to represent it. The agent secured her a lovely advance, that novel was published, and so has a second one.
MT: Thank you for sharing that example of what we are all capable of when we clear thoughts that no longer serve us. Thank you taking the time to share your knowledge with us. I truly believe this work can be so beneficial to my readers.
Course OverviewMillions of smart, sensitive, and creative individuals face the sorts of challenges that Dr. Eric Maisel, America's foremost creativity coach, has been addressing for over thirty years. But the only challenge they have real control over is getting a grip on their own mind. Philosophers from Marcus Aurelius to the Buddha have proclaimed this to be our essential human task and cognitive-behavioral therapy is the modern way this age-old message is delivered. That's why CBT is quickly gaining popularity--so much so in fact, that it is the primary therapy provided by the British Health Service. The central message of Buddhism and CBT are true: you are what you think. In this unique course Dr. Maisel teaches you a brand new way to get a grip on your mind. Instead of focusing on thoughts, you learn how to employ a powerful metaphor that captures the essence of how your mind works. As a result, you can begin to effectively deal with sadness, anxiety, self-criticism, creative blockage, and all the other challenges you regularly face. Designed especially for smart, sensitive and creative individuals, this new way of looking at the mind will help you live a less fretful, less claustrophobic, more creative, all-around improved life. Don't miss this exceptional, groundbreaking course!
How Does It Work?Starting today, you will receive a new lesson every week for 8 weeks (total of 8 lessons). Each lesson is yours to keep and you'll be able to refer back to it whenever you want. And if you miss a lesson or are too busy to get to it that day, each lesson will conveniently remain in your account so you won't have to search for it when you're ready to get back to it.
Get Started NowWe are offering this course with the option of selecting how much you want to pay. No matter how much you pay, you'll be getting the same course as everybody else. We simply trust that people are honest and will support the author of the course with whatever they can afford. And if you are not 100% satisfied, we will refund your money.
How much do you want to pay?$15$35$50
This is the total amount for all 8 lessons
More than 8,000 students have taken Eric's course to shift negative thought patterns in their lives. If you are struggling with self-defeating thoughts and have a desire to release what no longer serves you, this course might help.
Be well,
Madisyn Taylor
Cofounder, Editor-in-Chief
DailyOM
Cynthia Kane is the founder of the Intentional Communication Institute and dedicated to helping men and women change their communication routines so they feel in control of their words and understood at home and at work. She is a certified meditation and mindfulness instructor who received her BA from Bard College and her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Yoga Journal, Self Magazine, and Woman's Day Magazine. She is the bestselling author and has helped thousands of people change their way of communicating through her online courses, workshops, and certification program. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and son. 