Convince yourself that worrying about many situations will make them worse rather than improve them.

There are three musts that hold us back: "I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy." And I sometimes think that as long as we keep the second must, which is socially learned, then some screwballs 100 years from now will manufacture atomic bombs in their bathtub and maybe annihilate the whole human race because they demand that the rest of the world must agree with their dogmas. When we don't agree, they may zap us.

Even injustice has it's good points. It gives me the challenge of being as happy as I can in an unfair world.

Convince yourself that worrying about many situations will make them worse rather than improve them.

For that again, is what all manner of religion essentially is: childish dependency. If something is irrational, that means it won't work. It's usually unrealistic. People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness. People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware. Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world. Self-esteem is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional. The art of love is largely the art of persistence.

Strong feelings are fine; it's the overreactions that mess us up.

The trouble with most therapy is that it helps you feel better. But you don't get better. You have to back it up with action, action, action.