Now that you know you can, should you?
Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
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Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#72I once heard Sam Harris talking about a similar process. Most people sort of are their thoughts. That is -- this is tough to describe plainly -- their thoughts and feelings are primary, driving their actions as if mechanically linked. But you can in a certain sense become aware of your thoughts and view them as an outsider, as something that's happening that you can see and choose how you react to. It's not just abou…
That sounds fascinating. Do you happen to have a link to anything he's written or recorded on the subject?
I've listened to Sam Harris' stuff too not long ago and I'm not sure if it changed my life, but it definitely blew my mind and is part of a broader interest in this type of stuff that is changing my life. I don't agree with all his opinions, but his interview with Tim Ferriss and his book Waking Up are both fantastic.
Tim Ferriss Interview: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/06/18/sam-harris/
Waking Up (narrated by Sam himself, which I prefer): http://www.audible.com/pd/Religion-Spirituality/Waking-Up-Au...
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#73I once heard Sam Harris talking about a similar process. Most people sort of are their thoughts. That is -- this is tough to describe plainly -- their thoughts and feelings are primary, driving their actions as if mechanically linked. But you can in a certain sense become aware of your thoughts and view them as an outsider, as something that's happening that you can see and choose how you react to. It's not just abou…
That sounds fascinating. Do you happen to have a link to anything he's written or recorded on the subject?
It was either on his "Waking Up" podcast or during one of his many (very long) appearances on Joe Rogan's show. Sorry, I don't remember which episode.
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds fascinating. Do you happen to have a link to anything he's written or recorded on the subject?
I've listened to Sam Harris' stuff too not long ago and I'm not sure if it changed my life, but it definitely blew my mind and is part of a broader interest in this type of stuff that is changing my life. I don't agree with all his opinions, but his interview with Tim Ferriss and his book Waking Up are both fantastic. Tim Ferriss Interview: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/06/18/sam-harris/ Waking Up (narrated by Sam…
Harris was initially my least favorite of the Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett -- but my opinion has completely changed over the last year. With Hitchens gone, he's playing the role of public intellectual better than anybody else I'm aware of right now. I highly recommend his podcast.
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've listened to Sam Harris' stuff too not long ago and I'm not sure if it changed my life, but it definitely blew my mind and is part of a broader interest in this type of stuff that is changing my life. I don't agree with all his opinions, but his interview with Tim Ferriss and his book Waking Up are both fantastic. Tim Ferriss Interview: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/06/18/sam-harris/ Waking Up (narrated by Sam…
Harris was initially my least favorite of the Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett -- but my opinion has completely changed over the last year. With Hitchens gone, he's playing the role of public intellectual better than anybody else I'm aware of right now. I highly recommend his podcast.
I lost some respect for Harris when he tried to lay into Noam Chomsky and failed miserably http://www.alternet.org/books/what-happened-when-sam-harris-...
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Harris was initially my least favorite of the Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett -- but my opinion has completely changed over the last year. With Hitchens gone, he's playing the role of public intellectual better than anybody else I'm aware of right now. I highly recommend his podcast.
I lost some respect for Harris when he tried to lay into Noam Chomsky and failed miserably http://www.alternet.org/books/what-happened-when-sam-harris-...
I was able to make it through about half of that before the irrelevant mewling about "privileged powerful male elites in U.S. society" became too much for me.
If anybody is interested in what Harris actually had to say, they should go read it for themselves:
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lost some respect for Harris when he tried to lay into Noam Chomsky and failed miserably http://www.alternet.org/books/what-happened-when-sam-harris-...
I was able to make it through about half of that before the irrelevant mewling about "privileged powerful male elites in U.S. society" became too much for me. If anybody is interested in what Harris actually had to say, they should go read it for themselves: https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-limits-of-discourse
yeah, because that's a totally neutral take on what happened.
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#78I talked to some psychologists at a conference a while back and they were mildly opposed to "positive psychology" on the grounds of crowding out healthy negative thoughts with positive ones being potentially detrimental to learning and potentially harmful with non-understood side effects. They said the research isn't exactly conclusive and noted that there's a lot of snake-oil salespeople branding themselves with "po…
In my experience, I've known people to take the techniques of positive reinforcement much too far. They do not acknowledge negative emotions and constantly try to stay as positive as possible which alienates them from people reacting to negative events (and can also make those people feel terrible because they're not as 'positive' as the other person). You can take anything too far, and I think the risk of positive psychology is being too happy in inappropriate times.
That said, for someone who is prone to depression, moodiness, rumination and anxiety training ones self to dig rails for positivity is incredibly important and necessary. I tend to think of my thinking and mood as either a snowball effect or like a very deep groove thats been built over time. Thats what causes even small negative experiences to drop me deep into depression - the depression is like a groove with somewhat high walls, easy to fall into. Digging an equally deep positive groove requires what the OP's article suggests, and can eventually help to move more easily between them.
I've noticed that procrastination seems to follow the exact same pattern - if I start my morning with news and trivia then its far more difficult to move off of it later.
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah some amount of self-doubt sounds healthy. Questions that come to mind: * Is there a healthy and an unhealthy kind of self doubt? * What's the appropriate amount?
You should doubt everything, completely, otherwise you will make poor assumptions based on incorrect axioms.
Take the right things for granted, and don't take the wrong things for granted. If you doubt everything, I doubt you'd be able to maintain a diet or drive a car, or leave the house for that purpose. If you can't see the depths to which that can go, you're operating on the shallow end of doubt.
Re: Steps to Turn Off the Nagging Self-Doubt in Your Head
#80I talked to some psychologists at a conference a while back and they were mildly opposed to "positive psychology" on the grounds of crowding out healthy negative thoughts with positive ones being potentially detrimental to learning and potentially harmful with non-understood side effects. They said the research isn't exactly conclusive and noted that there's a lot of snake-oil salespeople branding themselves with "po…
Positive psychology is really the study of what makes people do well and be happy in a similar way that regular psychology can study regular behaviour and things that can go wrong like depression. It's a bit up to the individual as to which findings they try to use in everyday life. No doubt there's snake oil out there and sound science also. As a field of study it makes sense. After all people want to be successful and happy so why not study what works?
Personally I've tried some stuff with success. CBT type stuff worked when I was a bit depressed - not sure if that's positive but anyhow... I tried some of the gratitude journal type things with moderate results. One thing I'm looking at now is I read somewhere the biggest difference between people who are averagely happy and top 10% is social skills and relationships. I think I got that from http://www.authentichappinessfacts.com/2016/02/happiness-fac...
which is a kind of garbled summary of http://condor.depaul.edu/hstein/NAMGILES.pdf