Compare yourself to others. Judge yourself. Judge others. Think and evaluate in absolutes. Make every misfortune or mistake a catastrophe. Worry about problems you don’t have. Refuse to face reality and instead live in fantasy. Say and think bad things about yourself. Think that you are an awful, unlovable person if you make a mistake. Believe you are worthless unless you are perfect.
The trouble with always hiding, suppressing, and dismissing one’s feelings is that they become much like disgruntled employees in preparation for a rebellion. In one way or another, their voices will be heard. Let’s say you’re the boss and had a bunch of employees working for you. If you chose to work as a dominating micro-manager forcing all of your workers into submission and punishing them at any sign of potency, it will not be long before your team becomes less and less productive as their will is squelched from all of the harsh treatment [...]
Is this really what I want to be doing or saying? Am I willing to deal with and face the consequences? If I do or say this will things turn out well for me or the ones I love? These are VERY good questions to ask when putting oneself in a potentially detrimental, destructive, or compromising situation. So the goal is to play it out to the end. Let's say I am in recovery from my alcohol problem. BUT I am craving a drink. "If I have that drink it will taste and feel good"… And [...]
And this time, it’s true - At least according to Carl Jung (one of the grandfathers of modern psychotherapy). His theory suggests that we project the disowned (read: unappealing) aspects of ourselves onto others. Jung referred to this as our shadow archetype... don't worry I'm not going to go all psycho babble on you now. Basically, though, what he said is that the unfavourable qualities we react negatively to in others are really just our own issues that we do not identify with or recognize, but possess nonetheless. In other words: The things that bother, [...]