Skip to main content

Have a Go Spaghettio! and The Quality of Our Thoughts


The Quality of Our Thoughts

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius

This message comes across loud and clear in Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) theory. Ellis talked about the quality of our thoughts in terms of how helpful or unhelpful they are in getting what we want in our lives, our wants, goals, and aspirations. We can learn to think in ways that help us, rational thinking or we can construct beliefs that are more irrational and unhelpful.

REBT provides the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance paradigm that counsellors and psychotherapists use in therapy to help their clients understand how it is that they experience what Albert Ellis calls emotional and behavioural ‘upsetness.’ 

The ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance (see video) embraces the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and others of the Stoic tradition and considers the relationship between belief constructions, and emotional and behavioural responses to situations experienced in life. Aurelius suggests that thoughts of a rational nature or helpful quality can be developed, practiced, and can become intuitive. Thoughts of an irrational nature, or of poorer or unhelpful quality would generate feelings and behaviours that can be self-destructive.

Have a Go Spaghettio! delivers these ideas into the early childhood context of daily teaching and learning. What better than to introduce REBT/Stoic/General Semantic ideas to young children in a fun and age-appropriate way?

The Have a Go Saghettio! pedagogy teaches young people that their thinking, feelings and behaviours are all connected. The quality of their thinking can be enhanced in day-to-day interactions, so poorer quality thinking can be challenged and changed.

Brain Friend or Success Helper thinking helps maintain a mindset made up of helpful evidence-based thinking. Brain Bully or Success Stopper thinking can be demonstrated to be of poorer quality, fixed mindset thinking and beliefs that are self- destructive, irrational and harm causing.

If our young student constructivists are to learn how to self-regulate, the Have a Go Spaghettio! approach to psychological wellbeing will equip them with the knowledge and skills to do this as they grow and develop the capacity for metacognition in later primary school years and beyond.

Have a Go Spaghettio! delivers to young learners the ideas of Marcus Aurelius, Albert Ellis, and others that the quality of their thinking is important in their overall wellbeing. So, Give It a Try Banana Pie! and see how you go, Spaghettio!

Dr. Albert Ellis

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grieving the Loss of Self When Narcissistic Feed Dries Up

Professor Sam Vaknin is an authority on narcissistic personality disorder. His videos are informative and well communicated which helped my understanding of this condition. A narcissists  'feed' dries up when the supply of others adulation and affirmation withers and stops. A crisis ensues when the narcissist realises that incoming approval has diminished and their idealised self is under attack. The contrived and carefully constructed 'self' is no longer acknowledged and valued by external sources. They cease 'to be' because the sources feeding their self sees through the narcissists grandiose and phony veneer. (see  Ms. Prudence Putty-Nose  ) The self they have concocted and which demands the positive regard and affirmation of those they have trained to adore them, is but an irrational virtual representation of the real world. There's a disparity between the narcissists version of reality and how things really are, projecting a world of fantasy replayed on...
Post a Comment
Read more

APPROVALISM – the philosophy of the ‘love slob’

An approvalist is one who practices the philosophy of Approvalism. An approvalist lives life for the service of others seemingly without thought for self, ministering to the needs of others, making life ‘better’ for them. A good approvalist needs to do for others and her worth is measured according to how others view her and how helpful she can be to others. Approvalists say ‘yes’ to others demands and requests and are ultra sensitive to the needs of others (they must be rescued and saved). If they don’t perform to their own lofty expectations or (quelle catastrophe!) others don’t seem to value them (as they should) then they tend to harshly judge themselves as being ‘bad’ and may down themselves harshly! They will think, ‘I should have known that he needed support. I should have been there. I should have done better. I am a loser. It’s my fault he is in such a mess.’ They may also experience deep anger and direct it towards those ‘who do not appreciate me, after all shouldn’t they ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Positive Psychology and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

The ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance illustrates how feelings and behaviour at C are determined by what happens at A and B i.e. what we believe (B) about what happens (A). This is an A+B=C philosophy. What happens when our constructed view of ourselves equates to an A=C way of believing e.g. failing at A makes me feel depressed at C and causes me to give up. An A=C philosophy ‘If I fail at A I feel really bad at C 'it' (A) makes me angry and sad’ is problematic for our less resilient kids because they are unaware that constructed beliefs at B have a lot to do with it! 
A is what happens e.g. 'someone has rejected me!' and C is how I feel and act in response to A e.g. 'I feel really sad because she has rejected me so I stay at home etc' The depth of despair and how long it lasts will depend on how self accepting the person is. If a child ‘needs’ the approval of others he/she is at risk of depression, anger, anxiety because...
4 comments
Read more