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최악 보다 단순한 삶 살기
영어 이야기 1959
catasprophize
[kətǽstrəfàiz]
최악의 경우를 상상하다
침소봉대 (針小棒大)하다
요즈음 젊은 세대는 지식은 물론 삶의 조언조차
internet 에서 찾지만 옛날에는 그렇지 않았다.
부모 특히 아버지의 영향을 많이 받았다
나의 아버지는 존경받는 성공한 목사였는데
내가 잘못하면 '벌 대신' 교회에 데리고 가서
기도하던 기억이 난다
그리고 내가 다른 사람들에 비해 걱정을 덜 하는 것도
아버지의 성경적 권고였다고 생각한다
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
너희 가운데 염려하므로 그의 목숨이
단 한시간이도 연장할 수 있느냐?
(Matthew / 마태복음 6:25)
그리고 더 구체적으로
무엇을 먹을까, 무엇을 마실까 염려하지 말라는 교훈도 계속하셨다
나의 아버지만은 아니었던 모양이다
이름이 알려지지 않은 사람의 고백이다
I was inspired to CATASTROPHIZE by my father, who believed
that “90 percent of the things we worry about never come to pass.
나는 아버지에 의해 최악의 경우를 생각하는 것에 대해 감명을 받았는데
그는 우리가 걱정하는 모든 일의 90 퍼센트는
결코 일어나지 않는다고 믿었다
염려에 대한 생각은 그리스의 스토익 철학에서도 발견된다
For the Stoics, the goal of life was to live in agreement with Nature.
스토익 철학에서는 삶의 목표가 자연과 순응하며 사는 것이다
It required mindfulness, being present in the moment rather than allowing fear
그런데 그렇게 살려면 두려움을 불러오는 것 보다
순간 순간 현실에 빠져살려는 마음 가짐이 필요하다고 했도
—for example—to generate the kind of 'what if CATASTROPHIZING'
that can quickly pull the rug out from under even the most competent individual
예를 들어 '최악의 사태가 생기면 어쩌나' 라는 일을 불러일으키는 두려움이다
(Psychology Today, February 11, 2023)
나의 어버지가 성경 말씀으로 '영려하지 말라,'고 가르친 것과
어떤 사람의 아버지가 걱정의 90 퍼센트는 발생하지 않는다는 것
그리고 스토익 철학자가 자연에 순응하는 것과
두려움이 함께할 수 없다는 것 모두 같은 사상이다.
한국 정국을 보면 이런 생각을 하게 된다
Today's Korean politicians CATASTROPHIZE anything they can with deception.
오늘날의 한국 정치인들은 속임수로 그들이 할 수 있는
그 어느것도 최악으로 만들고 있다
I wonder if they know CATASTROPHIZING thinking amplifies people's anxiety?
그들은 (사건 또는 헛된 주장의) 침소봉대 생각이
국민들의 두려움을 증폭시킨다는 것을 아는지 궁금하다
사건의 최악화는 국민들이 어떻게 생각하는지 그들은
괘념하지 않기 때문이다
CATASTROPHIZING occurs when people assume the worst come true.
It usaully involves a belief that people are in a more dire situation than normal.
(정치인들의) 극단적 최악화 전략은 국민들이 최악의 상태가 오고 있다고 믿을 때 생기며
그것은 그들이 정상 보다 더 나쁜 상태에
처해 있다는 신념과 종종 관련이 있다.
Don't CATASTROPHIZIZE what you think
but just try to live a simple life by not worrying at all.
당신이 생각하는 것을 최악으로 치닫게 하지 말고
걱정하지 않으면서 단순한 삶을 살도록 노력하라
from under even the most competent individual when they can’t imagine their way through
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
John-Manuel Andriote\\
Catastrophizing is a style of thinking that amplifies anxiety.
The goal with catastrophizing is to stay calm and neither over nor under
"They will catastrophize in their mind that there's going to be another big one.
People who catastrophize believe that the ache is unbearable, and that they are beyond help.
Today’s news media will “catastrophize” anything they can.
I was inspired to catastrophize by my father, who believed that “90 percent of the things we worry about never come to pass.
Instead of using statements that catastrophize an incident use phrases that just show you may need to improve in that area
Why do you always catastro
What is Catastrophizing?
Catastrophizing occurs when an individual assumes the worst will come true. It typically involves a belief that one is in a more dire situation than norma
Why Do We Catastrophize? How to End Worst-Case-Scenario Thinking
At the root of most anxiety disorders is what-if thinking. While 90% of our negative thoughts never come to fruition
For the Stoics, the goal of life was to live in agreement with Nature.
It required mindfulness, being present in the moment rather than allowing fear
—for example—to generate the kind of “what if” catastrophizing that can quickly pull the rug out from under even the most competent individual when they can’t imagine their way through
whatever-it-is and the triumph that may well await on the other side of it.
Stonewall Strong
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
Thinking Like a Roman Emperor Is Good Philosophy and Therapy
Ancient Stoicism and modern cognitive behavioral therapy are a lot alike.
Posted February 21, 2023
Reviewed by Ekua Hagan
KEY POINTS
Stoicism, like CBT, is concerned with separating facts from feelings and value judgments about those facts.
The Stoics emphasized living mindfully in the moment to prevent anxiety and catastrophizing.
The Stoics emphasized acceptance of what is and avoiding "what ifs."
Moral self-examination is important to both Stoicism and CBT.
catastrophe (n.)
1530s, "reversal of what is expected" (especially a fatal turning point in a drama, the winding up of the plot), from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophē "an overturning; a sudden end," from katastrephein "to overturn, turn down, trample on; to come to an end," from kata "down" (see cata-) + strephein "turn" (from PIE root *streb(h)- "to wind, turn"). The extension to "sudden disaster" is attested from 1748.
Entries linking to catastrophe
word-forming element meaning "down, downward," but also "through, on, against, concerning," etc., from Latinized form of Greek kata-, before vowels kat-, from kata "down, downward, down from, down to," from PIE *kmt- "down, with, along" (source also of Hittite kattan (adv.) "below, underneath," katta "along with"). Occasionally in Greek it had senses of "against" (catapult) or "wrongly" (catachresis), also "along, through, over, across, concerning." Also sometimes used as an intensive or with a sense of completion of action (catalogue). Very active in ancient Greek, this prefix is found in English mostly in words borrowed through Latin after c. 1500.
How could I not read a book, highly recommended by a friend whose literary taste I trust, with a title like How to Think Like a Roman Emperor?
Especially when it promised to explore the striking parallels between the ancient Stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and modern cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)?
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I was struck regularly, as I read, by those parallels. It was as though after years of CBT as a consumer of psychotherapy myself, and even more years of reading and learning about it, I had discovered
the
primordial roots of the very philosophy behind the theory driving the type of therapy my providers practiced.
For the Stoics, the goal of life was to live in agreement with Nature.
It required mindfulness, being present in the moment rather than allowing fear—for example—to generate the kind of “what if” catastrophizing that can quickly pull the rug out from under even the most competent individual when they can’t imagine their way through
whatever-it-is and the triumph that may well await on the other side of it.
The Stoics understood that, as they would have said in Greek, “skata happens” in life. We suffer disease and injury. We lose loved ones. We are heartbroken in love. They didn’t for one minute deny the normal emotional responses to such events. But they went an important step further by cultivating the ability to separate facts from feelings.
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As the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus famously put it, “It’s not things that upset us but our judgments about things.” The ability of “things” to upset us depends on the meaning we attached to whatever the thing may be.
If, for example, I believed that living with HIV, as I do, is something shameful and “proof” that I am worthy only of moral condemnation and, eventually, an eternity in hellfire—well, then, why in the world would I be motivated to take my medication and keep my doctor appointments? There are in fact HIV-positive people who believe they “deserve” God’s judgment and do not take their lifesaving medication because they don’t consider themselves fit to live. I am not one of those people.
Instead, I choose to frame the situation—the story—very differently. I stick to the facts of the situation and spare myself the value judgments some would attach to those facts. The facts are these: I am a human being living in a dangerous physical world. I have wanted to feel loved and desired, as we humans do. My own trauma at times undermined my better judgment and led me to engage in behavior that put me in the way of the human immunodeficiency virus.
THE BASICS
What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Find a counsellor who practices CBT
As my doctor said at the time, the important thing was not to focus on how I’d gotten infected—but on how I was going to live with this new fact of my life. Epictetus himself, afflicted with a lame leg, taught his students about coping with illness. He tells them that disease impedes our body—but it does not impede our freedom of will unless we make it so.
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Donald Robertson, the cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, says Epictetus, “was no more perturbed by his crippled leg than he was by his inability to grow wings and fly—he simply accepted it as one of the many things in life that were beyond his control.”
My diagnosis marked the beginning of what I think of as my heroic journey. I searched my memories and journals to understand not only the losses and traumas that had brought me to this terrifying medical moment in my personal history—but also to understand where along the way I had developed the resilience I felt confident would help me move into this whole new dimension of thinking about myself, about life, and about death.
This kind of self-examination is central to Stoicism—and, really, to CBT. It’s all about trying to understand why we do what we do, think and feel as we do, and how to fix the parts of ourselves that are out of harmony with the better parts of ourselves. It’s about framing our stories with facts, not value judgments about those facts.
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY ESSENTIAL READS
Does Religion Help You See the World as Good?
A Critique of Stoicism
Robertson writes, “By deeply reflecting on our values each day and attempting to describe them concisely, we can develop a clearer sense of direction in life.” He suggests posing questions like these of yourself:
What’s ultimately the most important thing in life to me?
What do I really want my life to stand for or represent?
What do I want to be remembered for after I am dead?
What sort of person do I most want to be in life?
What sort of character do I want to have?
What would I want to be written on my tombstone?
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Once you clarify your own core values, Robertson advises comparing them to the Stoics’ cardinal virtues—wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation.
An important way those virtues are lived is demonstrated in how we handle difficult experiences such as losing our loved ones to death. Robertson says that Marcus Aurelius learned from his multiple experiences of loss and bereavement that death is a natural and inevitable part of life. That changed perspective altered his experience of grief. “He still sheds tears and mourns losses, but as a wise man does,” writes Robertson. “He no longer adds to his natural grief by complaining and shaking his fist at the universe.”
Wisdom, the Stoics’ foremost value, lies in understanding that we are not uniquely singled out for cosmic persecution but we are instead part of a marvelously interconnected web of ever-renewing life. Such understanding is liberating because it means living out the principles of the Serenity Prayer: Possessing the courage to change what we can, being able to accept what we can’t change, and having enough wisdom to know the difference.