Postcards from the Funny Farm

Did you ever see a superhero movie where the hero finds the villain’s lair only to hear upon entry:

Welcome. We’ve been expecting you.

Then there is a ghoulish laugh like “bwah ha ha ha ha” or something like that? That scene is pretty common in superhero shows. It’s possible audiences relate with it so well because we all have metaphorical villains that we fear. When our fear materializes it seems composed and set on destroying us. In those scenarios, fear has control, we do not. Wouldn’t it be great if when our fear shows itself we could say to it:

And I have been expecting you!

Preparation to meet our “villain” is the key to good mental health. Sorry if the picture is too scary, but I thought it accentuated my point well. The villain is not for kids.

If you go back and read my post on the REBT psychology method you will see that our belief about adversity is what determines our action and consequence. Wrong beliefs about things defeat us. At the present time, these posts of inspiration and good mental health are my favorite to write.  If your greatest fear is to lose your job, which is probably mine in all honesty even though I have a pretty secure job, then ask yourself why does that scare you so much. Is your worth 100% in your job? I know mine isn’t. As you begin analyzing that fear and asking “Why?” you can become prepared for the fear when it comes up. Classic example of REBT: Your boss calls you into his office. Do you panic? This is your villain manifesting itself. There is no need to panic if you meet him prepared. Your greatest fear is probably not even going to happen and imagine how much trouble you’ll save yourself by not being so concerned. You can beat that villain and another and another until ideally fear no longer has a hold over you (I am not there quite yet). It’s a great thing when defeat a villain, despite his size.

REBT is my latest excitement to blog about, thought it is certainly nothing new. As I close, let me draw your attention to another psychological marvel that shows us really all our collective villains I guestblogged about in a simple list:

The 10 Cognitive Distortions. These are the biggies to watch out for.  Remember this ‘aint no movie, this is your one shot at a life.

Now, go get yourself prepared to meet the villain.

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This is a guest blog post by Marcia from Tumbled Words.

We have been preparing for one thing or another most of our lives, haven’t we? Let’s take a trip back into our past in preparation for my one question quiz in honor of Damien and Sarah both being teachers.  (No cheating!)

Flash back to elementary school. We were taught to prepare for the next lesson. Sometimes we prepared merely by closing our book, putting away our pencils, and opening our eyes and ears.

Most of us learned to prepare for that next lesson on our own, eventually.

Now mosey on back to middle school (or junior high as my generation referred to it). We were taught to prepare for the next test by studying, and we did, but in our own way. We were preparing to grow up. Our preparation for tests varied: alone, in front of TV, in solitude, or with radio blaring; others studied with friends (in between making out or stuffing our faces with junk food); and those other two groups studied on the school bus as who knows what flew past their heads or they sat quietly at the kitchen table beneath mother’s watchful eye.

Yes, most of us managed to prepare for our upcoming tests — when we wanted to.

High school came and went too fast for some and interminably slow for others. We continued to prepare for tests, sometimes changing our method month to month. But we also learned to prepare for other things: meeting that hunky guy or hot girl, getting out of going to work, our weekend, avoiding our parent’s questions, avoiding our kid brothers and sisters.

Yes, we were quite successful at preparing - just not always for the task that should have been at hand.

College years snuck past some of us as just more of the same, but there, when we were paying attention, we prepared for our careers before they leaped out to ensnare us.

And so on.

You are prepared, right? Now, please, answer the following in one or two sentences:

With all that practice at preparing for things, why have so many of us failed to prepare for marriage or old age?

Just a question I needed to ask….

(Thank you Damien, for providing a wonderful venue for my question.)