The Silly Mind : Learning to Take Life 'More or Less' Seriously

by Lima, David R.; Scobel, Donald N.

• ISBN13: 9781893733015
• ISBN10: 1893733017
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Super Six Pub

Summary

The Silly Mind humorously and lucidly describes how we create our own emotional disturbances and how we can undisturb ourselves. Once acquainted with the role of thoughts in the creation of emotional disturbances and the arbitrary and absurd nature of human ideation, the reader is propelled toward heathier emotional experiences by making those ideas less immutable, more amenable to change. The Silly Mind helps the reader understand how ideas are created, how emotional disturbances occur, how certain ideas are linked to certain disturbed emotions, how to tell the difference between helful and harmful ideas, how to use certain techniques to change disturbed feelings, how to act against these acquired harmful beliefs and how to view oneself and the world with more tolerance.

Table of Contents

About The Authors, About The Book	15	(4)
Foreword	19	(2)
Introduction	21	(6)
What Do You Mean My Thinking Is Absurd?	27	(8)
I told an acquaintance I thought she was absurd...and her ideas were even more absurd. What am I really saying about her...and her ideas?
Definitions	27	(1)
No Universal Meaning	28	(1)
You and I See the Same Picture On the Wall	29	(1)
Are All Meanings We Give To Things...Absurdities?	30	(1)
But Why Absurd?	31	(1)
Are Absurdities Changeable?	32	(1)
A Contary View of the Absurd	33	(1)
In a Nutshell	33	(2)
The Link-Pin Between Feelings And Absurdities	35	(12)
No matter what crowd I'm in, I'm the only one who knows what I think and what I feel. Is that why I don't like crowds?
Feelings: To Whom Do They Belong	35	(1)
The Relationship Between Absurdities and Feelings	36	(2)
What is the Recipe for Affirmative Absurdities?	38	(4)
The Denial---Affirmation Continuum	42	(2)
Recap	44	(1)
And Next	45	(2)
The Birthplace Of Our Absurdities	47	(6)
I was born with a clean slate, so my mother tells me. Where did all my beliefs come from? How did the slate get so cluttered?
Are My Absurdities My Own?	47	(1)
From Others	47	(2)
From Our Own Mind	49	(1)
From Dreams	50	(1)
Absurdities Influence Absurdities	50	(1)
Composite	51	(2)
Lost And Found: Hiding Our Painful Absurdities	53	(10)
I can't remember where I put my socks, so how can I remember where I put several thousands of absurdities?
I Created My Absurdities; How Can They Be Lost?	53	(1)
Beyond Question	54	(1)
Which Absurdities To Identify?	55	(2)
Categories of Absurdities	57	(1)
Absurdity Clusters	57	(1)
Self, Others, Things	57	(1)
The Minds Propensity for Duality	58	(1)
Peeling the Absurdity	59	(2)
Cogito Ergo Sum-mation	61	(2)
The Art Of Defusing A Painful Absurdity	63	(12)
Do People ever really change their mind? Ha!
Beliefs Are For The Changing	63	(2)
A Driving Example	65	(1)
Flawed	65	(2)
Recording and Grading	67	(3)
The Feeling - Behavior Connection	70	(1)
Infusing a Series of Events - Absurdities - Feelings - Behavior	71	(1)
Specific Ways to Change an Absurdity: The First Three Steps	71	(4)
Putting An Absurdity On The Witness Stand	75	(14)
Perry Mason-izing a belief, putting its feet to the fire.
On the Witness Stand	75	(1)
The Relationship of Absurdities to Reality	76	(2)
Back to the Witness Stand	78	(2)
Common Cross-Examination Questions	80	(2)
Cross Examine the Absurdity Against the Four Life Affirming Values	82	(3)
Try the Opposite Absurdity or Some Step In Between	85	(1)
Good-bye Laura	86	(1)
In Summation	87	(2)
Putting An Absurdity To A Performance Test	89	(12)
Did you ever run an absurdity around the block a few times?
Challenge By Doing	89	(1)
The Power of Exaggeration	90	(1)
Compulsive Behaviors	91	(1)
It Could Have Been Worse	92	(2)
Inflated Worthlessness	94	(1)
Repetitious Listening	94	(1)
Out-Shaming the Absurdity	95	(1)
Staging the Absurdity	96	(1)
Summary	97	(4)
Some Common Absurdities That Trouble Us	101	(18)
What are people saying to themselves when they're depressed, anxious, angry, addicted, stressed? I mean what are the words?
A Philosophical Detour	101	(1)
Bondage and Liberation	102	(1)
Absurdities Associated with Anxiety	103	(3)
Absurdities Associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors	106	(1)
Absurdities Associated with Post Traumatic Stress	107	(1)
Absurdities Associated with Addiction Problems	108	(4)
Absurdities Associated with Depression	112	(2)
Absurdities Associated with Anger	114	(2)
Absurdities Associated with Undesired Performance Variations	116	(2)
Mind is the Cause of Liberation	118	(1)
Mending The Mendacities	119	(8)
What? A vigorous mind is a flexible mind seasoned with a dash of humor? Is that all there is to it?
In a Nutshell	119	(1)
Constancy and Change	119	(1)
Reggie	120	(3)
Finale: A Primer in Nine Short Paragraphs	123	(4)
Forms	127	(2)
References	129