Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Albert EllisRead
People don't just get upset. They contribute to their upsetness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our emotional responses are often influenced by our own thoughts and behaviors.
In this quote, Albert Ellis emphasizes that individuals play a significant role in their emotional disturbances. Rather than viewing upsetness as a purely external reaction, he suggests that our internal processes, beliefs, and interpretations contribute heavily to how we feel. This perspective encourages self-awareness and personal responsibility in managing emotions.
Themes
EmotionsUpsetResponsibilitySelf-AwarenessThoughts
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a mental health workshop to illustrate personal accountability in emotional well-being.
More from Albert Ellis
All quotes βReligious creeds encourage some of the craziest kinds of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and favor severe manifestations of neurosis, borderline personality states, and sometimes even psychosis.
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I had used eclectic therapy and behavior therapy on myself at the age of 19 to get over my fear of public speaking and of approaching young women in public.
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If you would stop, really stop, damning yourself, others, and unkind conditions, you would find it almost impossible to upset yourself emotionally - about anything. Yes, anything.
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The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
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Attempts to help humans eliminate all self-ratings and views self-esteem as a self-defeating concept that encourages them to make conditional evaluations of self. Instead, it teaches people unconditional self-acceptance.
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