"Thoughts determine feelings. Remember that. Make a note. Get a tattoo. This powerful idea goes back thousands of years to the Stoics".
Feelings aren’t truth incarnate.
Emotions are useful, but they are our biological suggestions, not commandments. Our brain is a pattern-recognition machine. It makes observations and starts forming rules about the world. It’s really good at this. It creates automatic thoughts based on previous experience to simplify our way through life.
But sometimes our brain makes errors when it’s forming its rules, and the most common error is "better safe than sorry" acting as an overprotective parent.
So maybe that automatic emotional reaction, that gut feeling isn't really adjusting to reality.
And so? What to do?
Listen.
Eric's Barker approach on states on Aaron's Beck book ...