Years ago, when I was much younger, I participated in group therapy at a critical moment of my life. Recently, while cleaning out a file cabinet, I found some notes I made during that time.
Here are some of the important lessons I learned. Maybe these might help you too.
- “Life is a vale of tears.”
- Insight is the beginning of change.
- If something isn’t working, do it differently. Practice ways to change.
- Everyone can change. They may choose to change, or they may not.
- You won’t cease being yourself if you do it differently.
- Most people fear change because they fear loss.
- You cannot make another person feel anything. You cannot change another person, only yourself.
- You are the cause of your own personal happiness.
- All you have is what is going on now: the present. Live in the present.
- Everything is a trap. Making a choice means you don’t get it all.
- We don’t appreciate or celebrate what we gain. There’s both gain and loss in every situation. Nothing is “either” / “or.” It’s both.
- Anger turned inside is depression.
- You get depressed at the advent of some major change in your life. You are anticipating loss and sadness.
- We orchestrate our lives either consciously or unconsciously.
- Don’t give the control of your life over to another.
- Major things in life happen by chance. Learn to create your own happenstance.
- Choose to become imperfect, not a victim.
- A person creates his own outlook on life. Situations can vary because of how you view the situation.
- The more you are autonomous, the closer you can get to other people.
- We fear losing our identity.
- If you are mature, you can distinguish between how you think and how you feel.
- Adulthood is the ability to live with your own aloneness.