Five Steps to Optimism: The A,B,C's to life

You're in bad a mood, someone rubs you the wrong, your boss is mean, your friend snaps, your morning sucks...life happens. Someone wise (who I'm forgetting now) said:

Life is like a movie and you are the director. You decide where to point the camera and what story to tell.

There are infinite ways to tell the same story...so you might as well choose a happy ending if it's your own. If you read my next blog post you'll see how I stumbled through these steps.

A) Identify the Activating event

ex: My breakfast meeting cancels, I have problems with the bank, I'm running late, a cabbie give me attitude.

B) What was the resulting Belief or inner thought dialogue?

ex: I'm having bad luck.

C) What were the emotional and behavioral Consequences?

ex: A downward spiral of self judgement, anger, and frustration.

D) Dispute irrational thoughts or beliefs

ex: This is just one morning. I've had many successes that I'm proud of and have navigated worst days. In fact, many of my bad days often turn out to be awesome in the end.

E) What are the Effects of interpreting the incident differently?

ex: I can have an awesome day regardleess of what happens!

Want to read more. Albert Ellis' ABC Model Here

You can also find more in Martin Seligman's: Authentic Happiness.  

Our best,

Stella + Genna