“What if…?” is a sure fire cognitive manufacturer of anxiety. Avoidance behavior temporarily reduces anxiety, but maintains or increases it in the long run. The Serenity Prayer is an excellent resource for management of the worry that creates anxiety, and the expectations that create frustration. Approach behavior may temporarily increase anxiety, but it puts you in a position to practice and improve the skills needed to minimize anxiety. Join us for a discussion of anxiety management, focusing on generalized and social anxiety.
Read MoreAre mere beliefs sustenance enough? Are moral practices superfluous? Can we espouse love but practice prejudice without even noticing the incongruity? What prismed spectacles must be donned by extremists at the far edges of the politico-religious spectrum to blind themselves to such hypocrisy? Understanding prejudice seemed like a moral imperative after World War II. As a species, we could not let the Nazi slaughter of the Jews pass us by without understanding it, and preventing a recurrence. It was all too easy to blame the inhuman Germans, the Nazi enemy, and more recently, the Muslim jihadists, the despicable “other.” But is there something in the general human condition that ferments these atrocities? The key, perhaps, is to understand us-against-them, ingroup/outgroup thinking, and the danger of focusing on our differences, rather than our similarities to others, when the others also have nuclear toys.
Read MoreNegative emotions are a mixed bag: they give us feedback on what is wrong, but they are also noxious. When should we listen to them, when do we suppress them, and how do we learn to stop manufacturing them. In addition to examining this broader question, we will delve into anger and frustration today, and the cognitive processes that fuel them: blame and expectations.
Read More