We all want that feeling of self-satisfaction even though we have never really experienced such a feeling. What we have experienced, and continue to experience is the feeling or sense of dissatisfaction. We experience dissatisfaction within our physical bodies, our thoughts and feelings, our circumstances, our relationships, and in the world. Such dissatisfaction is derived from unmet and failed expectations.
The scope of these failed expectations can range from the discomfort of a mosquito bite to extreme physical and psychological pain… from not getting that bike as a kid to not getting the promotion you felt you were in line for… from being teased and/or bullied by a sibling, relative, parent, neighbor, schoolmate, etc., to physical, emotional and sexual abuse from a parent, sibling, relative, to being assaulted by a stranger… from being stuck in traffic to being a victim of a crime… from catching a cold to falling prey to a debilitating disease… from that boy or girl not going out with you as a young person to the experience of divorce and custody battles. Life experiences, including dysfunctional family history, can mess someone up in a bad way. A person is persuaded by experiences to believe the lies perpetrated by trauma, misery and struggle.
So much shapes our expectations and how we manage this life. Everything we experience is subject to interpretation. How we interpret our experiences drives what we conclude about our experiences shaping our belief system (values). NLX 101 explores these irrational beliefs that evolve out of failed past expectations and into distorted expectations and values. The approach for this examination of irrational beliefs is the Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy model originated by Albert Ellis in the 1960s. REBT examines the way our interpretation of activating events (activating emotions that require a reaction) lead to problematic consequences that have symptomatic results, such as feelings of guilt and shame, failure, betrayal and rejection; symptomatic since they fuel obsessive “stinking” thinking, which elicit various kinds and degrees of addictive behavior.
The objective of this lesson is to help participants to see truth through the cloud of distorted reality creating a fictitious caricature of the true self. Through careful examination, participants have the opportunity to clear some things up moving forward.