Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Albert EllisRead
I get people to truly accept themselves unconditionally, whether or not their therapist or anyone loves them.
Interpretation
Self-acceptance is crucial for personal growth, independent of external validation.
In this quote, Albert Ellis emphasizes the importance of individuals accepting themselves without relying on the love or acceptance of others, including therapists. It suggests that true self-esteem and personal peace come from an internal affirmation rather than external approval, encouraging people to embrace their true selves regardless of external opinions or judgments.
In practice
Using this quote during a mental health seminar to emphasize the importance of self-love.
Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Religious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis.
I had used eclectic therapy and behavior therapy on myself at the age of 19 to get over my fear of public speaking and of approaching young women in public.
If you would stop, really stop, damning yourself, others, and unkind conditions, you would find it almost impossible to upset yourself emotionally - about anything. Yes, anything.
The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
Attempts to help humans eliminate all self-ratings and views self-esteem as a self-defeating concept that encourages them to make conditional evaluations of self. Instead, it teaches people unconditional self-acceptance.
When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.
If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.
For centuries, humans have said to horses, 'You do what I tell you or I'll hurt you.' Humans still say that to each other -- still threaten, force and intimidate. I'm convinced that my discoveries with horses have value in the workplace, in the educational and penal systems, and in the raising of children. At heart, I'm saying that no one else has the right to say 'you must' to an animal -- or to another human.
In this sullen apathy neither true wisdom nor true happiness can be found.
What I've come to know is that in life, it's not always the questions we ask, but rather our ability to hear the answers that truly enriches our understanding. Never, never stop learning.
Remember: you are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.
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