Mental Health via slogan therapy

[Lancepeace]

Recovery International organization works on health through slogans.

1. People do things That annoy us, not necessarily To annoy us.
The slogan addresses perceived motivation of other people.

[Lancepeace]

2. Control perfectionism.
We are not perfect, others are not perfect.

[Lancepeace]

3. "Calm begets calm, temper begets temper."

The calm person tends to stay calm, the angry person tends to stay angry.

[Lancepeace]

"Humor is our best friend, temper our worst enemy."

[Lancepeace]

"To talk it up is to work it up."

Without perspective, we can talk ourselves into a fury.

[nimuay]

None of those sayings are necessarily untrue, but how to bring the to the front of the mind in a tense situation is rather another thing. That takes some serious training and technique.

[Lancepeace]

Certainly, the slogans don't always work. But they often do. (There are many more slogans.)
A doctor created the ideas that became slogans. His ideas was to use repetition and "will training" to try to make the ideas second nature.

[nimuay]

There are millions of other slogans - Joel Osteen has a few, John Hagee has a few more, Donald Trump has quite a few. And I'm dubious that any current doctor has invented 'repetition' as a teaching method.

Sounds like a repackaging for money. Are you repping for him?

[Lancepeace]

Dr Low died around 1953. The organization that follows his ideas is non-profit.
I am not an official of Recovery International but try to practice The Recovery Method in my life.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Lancepeace

Recovery International organization works on health through slogans.

1. People do things That annoy us, not necessarily To annoy us.
The slogan addresses perceived motivation of other people.

This post seems a little out of the blue, but the responses so far are interesting. The human mind, from our earliest infancy, creates "maps", which become semantic as our verbal skills develop. We hear things from our caregivers, who are our most significant teachers about "how" and "who" we are. Sometimes much of what we hear is negative.

Lines like, "You just like your father, you'll never amount to anything" when taken in at a young age, become a mantra, that reinforces any negative beliefs we might have. At that young age, we are incapable of discerning that our caregivers are "full of shit", or that their "opinions" are based on their own issues or ignorance - and we buy into these viewpoints and they become the marker-posts of our life scripts and maps.

For many folks, all the internal dialogue we have is negative; what we can't do, what we shouldn't do, who we're not, how someone or something is better than us; how we ruined our mother/father's life, etc., etc. The litany can be really endless.

Beginning to create a different cognitive map, and breaking this cycle of intensely negative self-thought and inner-dialogue is critical to becoming fully functional as an adult, and as a human. Taking responsibility for ourselves and our lives - making productive, pro-active choices, etc.

The number of people who believe; "they deserve prison", or "they are better off in prison", or "I can't make it on the outside", "I am worthless crap" and countless other similar thoughts is staggering. Breaking that negative self-talk is a critical step towards self-discovery and moving towards some kind of "health".

When folks end up in prison; and especially repeatedly, there is very clearly some kind of thinking disorder at the bottom of that. Very few inmates are enlightened enough to just make the conscious decision that prison is an OK place to be (and it is, but that is a more advanced and esoteric viewpoint). Prison is not normally a great place to redefine that inner dialogue since so much of the negatives one believes about themselves are reinforced all through the day.

These kinds of affirmations are an amazing tool if someone takes them seriously and constantly and consistently practices recollection of them as stresses arise.

The ones that have been so helpful to me are slightly more complex:

"The mark of one's true family is not one of blood, but of joy and respect in each other's lives. Rarely do members of the same family grow up under the same roof." [Richard Bach]

"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." [Richard Bach]

"Just because what's so is so, it's also 'so what?'" [Werner Erhardt]

I disagree with Nimuay that great practice or expertise is necessary having these come to mind in trigger moments. You can fold up a piece of paper and put it in your pocket with your affirmation on it - every time you put your hands in your pockets you feel it.

This is the point of creating any kind of conscious thought - where we are able to identify a trigger or critical moment - and use whatever tool(s) we have to refocus us to the moment.

Much of what scripts our behavior and beliefs is based on "shadow stuff". The internal beliefs and perceptions we have about ourselves which live beneath our conscious awareness. Our resistance to these statements - or our feelings of discomfort with them can be a great "practice" (as in spiritual practice) in self-understanding and self-care.

Over the years I have never known a single person in prison who evolved from a thug to a caring, awareness human being (and I have known many who have done this) without the use of these kinds of cognitive tools. It can be a wonderful and very helpful technique for anyone who "argues for their limitations."

[Lancepeace]

There are about 350 group meetings of RI in the USA. There is no fee to attend. A state psych hospital in Washington state uses the method somewhat. The Method is at least 70 years old. The meetings use the slogans / tools. The meetings are not especially spiritual or that social.

"Avoid temperamental lingo / language."

Sometimes the words we choose determine our emotion.

[patchouli]

I'm not sure where you're advocating for this to be used Inmates get what they get in terms of mental health care. Are you suggesting this program is used or should be used in a prison environment? ....inmates cannot attend outside meetings, which, from what you've posted, is what you do.

[Lancepeace]

Yes, I sometimes attend meetings. I think the method was once used in a prison but am not sure. I was going to explain some of the ideas but maybe I should stop. I am on meds myself.
P.S. the organization has online meetings, supposedly, on their website.

[patchouli]

You're more than welcome to post, but because this particular forum is for all mental health related issues dealing with the prison system I'll move the thread to a more appropriate forum