7.12.22 PSN 2(35) - Group Purpose, Peaceful Warrior, Gut Feelings, Reflection, Fate, FG Ch5

Hello Philosophy Society!

Discussion 1: Group Purpose

We began our discussion today with an overview of the purpose of the group since we had new members in attendance. The best way to envision attending the weekly meetings is to work with other people developing the skills that will give us greater wisdom. For example, learning how to communicate and disagree with each other is very valuable. First, we want to make an effort to understand what other people are trying to say. We can show our understanding by summarizing the content and main point of their idea. Then, once we have reached some form of agreement from them that we do understand, we can respectfully communicate what we see from our perspective. The purpose of ‘disagreeing’ is to help the other person further develop their idea or how they communicated it. This will in turn help them grow.

In the process of us learning how to communicate our ideas and receive feedback from others, we will be learning how to accept that feedback in general. Removing ourselves from being triggered in the process of receiving constructive criticism or feedback is a skill. We can learn to give and receive feedback on our ideas and behaviour at the Philosophy Society weekly meetings. It is important to speak from a place of observation and learn to find the most appropriate words for what we believe we see. It is also important to develop our empathy in learning how to see things from the perspective of others, especially when they see things we do not like.

Accepting the perspective of others when that perspective is seeing the worst in us will give us the opportunity to learn from those positions. Learning to grow from those stages of our development is wise, hence philosophical. This place, as a training ground for our growth, can give us the practice to work on ourselves in such a way that we will greatly prepare ourselves for situations in the future where those weaknesses would become the best of us. It is wise to prepare ourselves for situations that matter in life. This is what education is all about.

Any practice we can do that will improve our psychological wellbeing is within the educational territory of the philosophy society. I have placed a priority on certain skills for us to learn first, for example we read Feeling Good because I hope it will help protect people with emotional issues. I believe that the majority of our suffering could be taken away from socializing ourselves with the skills within this book. Learning and practicing it as a group will make us all stronger and we can look out for each other’s weaknesses as we move through the curriculum.

The purpose of the group is fundamentally based on the wisdom of living a mentally healthy life.

Critical Films: The Peaceful Warrior

We will be beginning the Philosophy Society film series called Critical Films. This event series is based on watching movies or documentaries that teach philosophically inclined themes then discussing the merit or relevance of those themes with our critical thinking skills. It will take place on January 6th at Bathurst and Front St. in the condo theater.

Film Dialogue:

https://www.achillesjustice.com/post/peaceful-warrior

Discussion 2: Gut Feelings

It is important for us to understand our feelings or our ‘gut’ instincts. Our evolutionary history has given us nonlinguistic inclinations in our environment and experience. The purpose of the distortion, Feeling Good, discussion is to be able to ensure that we are not basing decisions on feelings that are distorted. This does not mean to not listen to our emotions at all. It means that we become mindful of how we feel and learn to read our emotions. Part of this reading process comes down to translating our feelings and perceptions in a non-distorted way. Reading and discussing Feeling Good will give us the knowledge and practice to make sure we do not engage in distorted thinking and can understand our feelings in a constructive and beneficial way for our wellbeing.

Discussion 3: Reflection

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates stated, ‘an unreflected life is not worth living.’ (38a) The purpose of reflection is so that we can understand our actions and learn from them. To repeat our mistakes would not be a good life. Only through reflection, looking back on what happened, can we try something different and hope for alternative outcomes.

Friedrich Nietzsche discussed the idea of the Eternal Recurrence, where an evil demon comes to you in the night and poses you a question. ‘If you had to relive the same life over and over, for eternity, with all the sadness and joy, would you accept your life? When you die, you will be reborn again to live the same life forever.’ Once posed with this question, one is supposed to engage in some reflection and establish a sense of meaning with their life so that they can answer ‘Yes!’ to the question. If you feel that you would not want to live your life forever, there is much room for growth and the development of meaning. The goal of all of us is to reach the ' ‘Yes!’’.

Discussion 4: Fate

Another way of discussing fate is to talk about determinism. Basically, because we live in a physical, mechanistic world, where everything is governed by physical laws, are we too, at the deepest level of our being, also governed by laws? If so, we would not have free will. If we have free will, what would be the thing that accounts for the freedom in a universe that appears to be ordered in a consistent way?

There is a certain level of probability in how we conduct our lives. Luck can be understood as a combination of being prepared and open to opportunity. Fate would be that which we were already prepared for and events that were necessary in some ways but could have not been aware of until they occurred.

At the end of the day, if you are aware of something in a mindful way, you have the capacity to make a choice. You can be proactive and decide if you will accept what the environment presents to you.

Philosophy Academy: Feeling Good Chapter 5: Do-Nothingism: How to beat it

Today, we completed chapter 5 of Feeling Good from pages 110 - 130.

7. TIC-TOK Technique: If we find ourselves procrastinating, the first step is to be mindful of our thoughts. Burn’s recommends being aware of TICs, Task-interfering Cognitions, and how we can reduce their limiting effect on us by replacing them with TOC’s, Task-Oriented Cognitions. (110-111) It is important to identify the distortion within the interfering cognition so that we can correct the underlying problem in our thinking. Not only does this work for our self-talk, but we can apply this technique to mental images and visualizations that interfere with our ability to do a task. If we find ourselves visualizing performing negatively at a task, we can actively visualize a successful performance on that task instead. (111)

Our expectations have a large influence on how we act and what we are willing to do. On pages 112-113 Burns gives several examples of applying the TIC-TOC technique.

8. Little Steps for Little Feet: This technique, pages 114-115, is a means to compartmentalize our task. This means we break every task down into its component, smaller, parts. For example, we can use time limitations, pay attention for 3 minutes and have free distraction for 1 minute, to help with focusing. Or we can set aside a specific amount of time for a task, then even if it is not complete, step away from it so that we can enjoy other things. (114) It is important that we have a balance everyday in the types of activities we are doing so that we are actively pursuing meaningful goals. (115)

9. Motivation Without Coercion: (116-117) Here, Burns identifies the issue when we have poor motivation by committing the ‘should’ distortion. We can lose motivation to do things by using words like ‘should,’ ‘ought,’ and ‘must’ when we think about things that are important for us to do. Removing these coercive words from our self-talk helps us realize we are not obligated to do anything. Essentially, we want to translate the shoulds into wants, or could. For example, instead of saying ‘I should go to the store,’ we could say, ‘I could go to the store.’ We reserve the decision to do something and not carrel ourselves into certain modes of action. This will give us a sense of freedom, choice and personal dignity. (116)

We can create a list of advantages and disadvantages for each decision. Burns gives a table on page 117 for this.

10. Disarming Technique: (117-118) This is one of the most valuable techniques that Burns has that we can use in our daily lives. In this context, Burns is applying it to other people forcing us to do things by telling us we ‘should’ do things. If we feel that people are forcing us to do things, we have a tendency to resist, even if it is good for us. Having a sense of autonomy in our decisions is important for us to feel motivated to do it. Burns states, “Any time you feel shoved … you will naturally tighten up and resist so as to maintain your equilibrium and balance.” (Burns 118) We will make an effort in our own self-control to preserve our dignity in refusing anything we’re being forced to do.

If the thing we are being told to do is in our interest, we can resist even though it would be good for us. The first step of the Disarming Technique is to agree with the person but in this context, we are agreeing because we decided to do it on our own accord. The other two steps of the Disarming Technique are discussed in the next chapter. (119)

11. Visualize Success: (119-121) Here, Burns suggests that we list the advantages of a task that we have been putting off. When we think of the positive consequences it will require less self-discipline for us to do the task because we are motivated to go after the positive parts of the outcome. (119) On page 120, Burns gives advantages of quitting smoking for one’s motivation.

The second step is to fantasize being in our favorite place, visualize every detail possible and relax. Being in that visualized scene, add the element of also successfully completing the task, like quitting smoking. Using positive suggestions and associating one’s favorite place with the benefits of the accomplishment can help one gain success in achieving goals. (121)

12. Count What Counts: (121-123) Burns reminds us of the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy and how the mental filter and labeling can prevent us from being our best. It is important not to be dependent on others pushing us to do things, because we label ourselves in such a way that we can’t or we view things from a negative perspective. (122) We can learn self-efficacy in our ability to get things done on our own by being empirical and counting all the things that we successfully do on our own. We can log how many tasks we do and observe how, over time, our numbers will increase, showing how we are in control of our lives and not dependent on others. We will also notice our self-confidence will increase as well. (123)

13. Test Your Can’ts: (123-124) Developing a scientific perspective to test any self-defeating prediction about our performance and ability will help us in changing pessimistic thoughts to optimistic ones. When we say we ‘can’t’ do something, we can be stuck in an illusion that we are inadequate or incompetent. (123) Other people can also reinforce these negative attitudes by telling us or believing the negative things we say about ourselves. If we test these negative predictions with experiments as a form of hypothesis testing, we can disprove all the self-defeating ‘I can’t do this’ self-talk. (124)

14. The Can’t Lose System: (124-125) Sometimes people are scared of testing themselves because they are in fear of failure. If you list all the negative consequences of taking a risk and failing, you can see how even if you do fail, it is part of the learning process. (124) Everything that we take for granted that we do, we learned to do at some point in our lives, which means that we failed at it to some degree. Burns says, “At what age are you suddenly expected to know everything and never make any more mistakes?” (125) On page 126 he had a ‘Can’t Lose’ System expressed in a table format.

Burns concludes this chapter by explaining that action comes before motivation. People who procrastinate are confused about this, thinking that motivation comes before action. If you wait around for motivation before you do something, you can end up waiting forever and never doing it. (125) Burns breaks down the 14 different techniques in a simplified table on pages 128-130)

https://www.achillesjustice.com/post/feeling-good

Burns, David. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Harper Publishing. New York, 1999.

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Mass Market Paperback – Dec 30 2008

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