Hello, I had a conversation in a Stoic group recently where I brought up several interesting ways in which Albert Ellis (founder of REBT, the first cognitive therapy) may have more in common with Epicureans than Stoics. I decided to write up these stray observations and thought you all might find the topic interesting.
Let me know what you think.
In recent decades gratitude has been found to have benefits for well-being, physical health, and the quality of our relationships. But researchers are increasingly recognizing that gratitude can also have a dark side -- it can, for example, keep us locked into unhealthy dynamics and reinforce bad habits.
In other words, gratitude research is finally catching up to Socrates, who recognized that we need a certain know-how he calls wisdom to use anything well or badly -- including gratitude (as we learn from Plato's Crito).
Socrates thought that we progress in this know-how by giving an account of our beliefs about what is good and bad and then examine them. So, to examine whether we are expressing gratitude beneficially or harmfully we can take a standard gratitude prompt like, "what am I grateful for?" and add on to it, "and why is it good?"
This gives us an invitation to explore the underlying beliefs on which our gratitude rests, as these evaluative beliefs are the pool from which we draw our gratitude (it's hard to imagine feeling grateful for something we think is bad).
Would love to hear any thoughts or feedback on this exercise, especially if you give it a try.
In recent decades gratitude has been found to have benefits for well-being, physical health, and the quality of our relationships. But researchers are increasingly recognizing that gratitude can also have a dark side -- it can, for example, keep us locked into unhealthy dynamics and reinforce bad habits.
In other words, gratitude research is finally catching up to Socrates, who recognized that we need a certain know-how he calls wisdom to use anything well or badly -- including gratitude (as we learn from Plato's Crito).
Socrates thought that we progress in this know-how by giving an account of our beliefs about what is good and bad and then examine them. So, to examine whether we are expressing gratitude beneficially or harmfully we can take a standard gratitude prompt like, "what am I grateful for?" and add on to it, "and why is it good?"
This gives us an invitation to explore the underlying beliefs on which our gratitude rests, as these evaluative beliefs are the pool from which we draw our gratitude (it's hard to imagine feeling grateful for something we think is bad).
Would love to hear any thoughts or feedback on this exercise, especially if you give it a try.
Full article: Socratic Gratitude: What are you Grateful for and why is it Good?