Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Albert EllisRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The key to emotional well-being is to stop negative self-talk and blaming others.
Albert Ellis emphasizes the importance of recognizing and halting self-condemnation and the tendency to blame others or circumstances for our emotional state. By reframing our thoughts and stopping the cycle of negativity, we can achieve a more stable emotional state, making it difficult to upset ourselves over external factors.
Themes
Emotional Well-BeingSelf-AcceptanceNegativityEmotional ControlMindset
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about emotional resilience, I could cite this quote to urge individuals to take responsibility for their emotional responses.
More from Albert Ellis
All quotes βReligious 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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By honestly acknowledging your past errors, but never damning yourself for them, you can learn to use your past for your own future benefit.
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