The Healthy Management of Reality - Stanford University

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External and internal reality affect each other continually. We live in bothrealms of reality, and ignoring either will reduce our chances to manage reality in ahealthy manner. There are few things that are "all in our head." Most of the time,the worries or internal discomforts we experience are related to some aspect ofexternal reality. On the other hand, objective facts do not completely determinehow our lives will be experienced. It is the way that we react to these facts thatleads to joy or despair, to physical and emotional health, or to illness anddemoralization.Thoughts and memories appear to be entirely within the realm of internalreality (that is, cannot be observed as a thought or a memory by anyone other thanthe person having them). Physical actions are in the realm of external reality, thatis, they are potentially observable and measurable.Feelings, on the other hand, straddle the boundaries of the internal andexternal realms of reality. For example, emotional reactions can often beaccurately perceived by others. Their physiological aspects can certainly bemeasured. Yet, the core aspects of emotions are only experienced by theindividual. Only you know the depth of your sadness at hearing bad news, eventhough your face may betray that you are feeling sad. You are certainly the onlyone who knows the myriad of additional feelings that may be present during suchan event. Similarly, we can measure the electrical or biochemical activity thattakes place within our brain when we are engaged in the act of seeing, hearing,thinking, or remembering. We can represent this information in numbers, andtranslate these numbers into amazingly realistic "pictures" of the brain in action.However, the actual experience can only be described by the person having it.HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 20
Throughout the book, we will address all three of these major humanactivities: thinking, feeling, and acting. It is these activities which comprise thebulk of human experience. If these activities are within a healthy range, it is verylikely that one is living life at an optimal level.SummaryFor all practical purposes, we find ourselves in an infinite universe, and thus,an infinite reality. Our task is to learn to live as good a life as possible within thisreality. Given that we cannot know or understand all of reality, we can focus onthose parts of reality that affect us directly. Our personal reality has two majoraspects: Our internal (or mental) reality, and our external (or objective) reality. Bychoosing what we allow to enter our internal reality, and by choosing whichaspects of our external reality to actualize, we can, to some extent, manage ourpersonal reality.HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 21
Page 1 and 2: The HealthyManagementof RealityRica
Page 3 and 4: The Healthy Management of RealityCo
Page 5 and 6: Preface: The Origins of This BookEv
Page 7 and 8: serious depression. The course was
Page 9 and 10: Introduction: Sculpting RealityIn m
Page 11 and 12: The people of the Andes found thems
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1On Managing RealityThe uni
Page 15 and 16: To continue with the example: If ou
Page 17 and 18: But, given that we are finite and l
Page 19: The objective environment refers to
Page 23 and 24: Chapter 2Choosing a Direction"If yo
Page 25 and 26: Choosing a direction for one's life
Page 27 and 28: Few Christians would support the re
Page 30 and 31: The "healthy" aspect of "the health
Page 32 and 33: It appears, then, that there is a r
Page 34 and 35: Once one becomes aware of oneself a
Page 36 and 37: HMOR.July2005.Muñoz.doc 36
Page 38 and 39: are what I mean by necessary suffer
Page 40 and 41: unnecessary and can be prevented.Th
Page 42 and 43: the things that cause human sufferi
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Page 46 and 47: past that we remember (that is our
Page 48 and 49: The objective past had not changed,
Page 50 and 51: The fact is that five years hence,
Page 52 and 53: - The meanings we have accepted or
Page 54 and 55: Molding the past of our childrenThe
Page 56 and 57: - The child's core beliefs. Though
Page 58 and 59: your favorite book afterwards") the
Page 60 and 61: making sure that one's daily realit
Page 62 and 63: Change can move us toward a healthi
Page 64 and 65: Similarly, behaving in an exemplary
Page 66 and 67: Similarly, it is true that certain
Page 68 and 69: Learning which thoughts and actions
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do what you wish. If you are able,
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Tips on increasing the probability
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influence on us on one side and tho
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Being your own coach involves decid
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Beliefs and ConsequencesThe third l
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Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist who deve
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We Are Meaning-MakersThe fourth lev
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Closing the Loop: The four levels a
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To manage our reality optimally, we
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If you are feeling down or depresse
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PeopleThe social environment is at
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stimulation just as they need their
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In Chapter 2, I talked about choosi
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As we enter the twenty-first centur
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years. As I trace back my thinking
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what we both want.If we have a stro
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we will have progressed in terms of
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The Healthy Management of Reality - Stanford University

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