2961: 10 Reasons You Would Benefit From Therapy by Ira Israel on How to Truly Improve Your Life

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2961

[00:00:03] 10 Reasons You Would Benefit From Therapy by Ira Israel of IraIsrael.com

[00:00:09] And I'm Justin Malik

[00:00:11] Welcome back to a Sunday bonus episode where I give you a little extra content from a podcast in the Optimal Living Daily Network

[00:00:18] They think will also help you live a life that's a bit more meaningful and happier

[00:00:22] This episode is coming from Optimal Relationships Daily

[00:00:25] So without further ado here's Greg with another post and commentary as we optimize your life

[00:00:35] 10 Reasons You Would Benefit From Therapy by IraIsrael of IraIsrael.com

[00:00:42] Number 10

[00:00:43] You feel betrayed by the American dream which now feels like an albatross of debt

[00:00:49] monthly mortgage school loan and credit card repayments and

[00:00:52] Financial responsibility weighing you down so much that you have little time to do anything but work work work and extinguish one fire after another

[00:01:02] Number nine

[00:01:03] You feel betrayed by your romantic partner who you thought would always take care of you

[00:01:07] Support you through fat and thin and give you mind-blowing intimacy make you feel worthy and desirable and now seems to have become

[00:01:16] complacent

[00:01:17] Can't really be bothered to be continuously adventurous anymore and does very little to make your life exciting

[00:01:23] Mostly due to the fact that believing that other human beings were put on earth to make your life exciting is commonly referred to as

[00:01:30] narcissism

[00:01:32] Number eight you feel betrayed by whatever success you have attained

[00:01:36] You subconsciously learn that if you did all the right things earn boatloads of dough get married go on fabulous

[00:01:43] Vacations crush your 15 minutes of fame or infamy have the coolest cars and handbags

[00:01:49] That you would be happy now

[00:01:51] You're just a miserable automation with closets full of stuff a few cherry-picked glamorous social media photos and

[00:01:58] Possibly children who want very little to do with you the moral

[00:02:02] success does not equal happiness

[00:02:05] Number seven you feel betrayed by your job that has become uninteresting stupid and boring

[00:02:11] However, golden handcuffs keep you from changing careers at this time or pursuing your dreams

[00:02:17] Number six you feel betrayed by co-workers and business associates who now seem to take more pleasure in your failures than your triumphs

[00:02:26] Number five you feel betrayed by your body

[00:02:29] Which you assumed would not decline as rapidly as a human body declined sitting at a desk or in a car

[00:02:35] Subway or bus for 10 plus hours per day

[00:02:38] Number four you feel betrayed by your health which seems to take tremendous effort

[00:02:44] supplements juices made of dirt pharmaceuticals diets exercise tofu and sleep to preclude myriad illnesses

[00:02:53] Number three you feel betrayed by your government

[00:02:56] Which is primarily evident to you via taxes and parking tickets and secondarily in hourly news feeds documenting its jaw-dropping

[00:03:04] identity

[00:03:05] Number two you feel betrayed by your friends and family members for loving you because you are so gosh darn positive

[00:03:13] Feeling compelled to perpetually put your best foot forward in fear of other people abandoning you

[00:03:18] Because you exhibit a wider than acceptable bandwidth of human emotions such as grief for instance

[00:03:24] And number one you feel betrayed by your parents for loving you conditionally

[00:03:30] Because you learned how to use toilets and utensils not simultaneously

[00:03:34] Learned how to speak a language learned how to dress yourself learned how to compete for good grades

[00:03:39] Learned how to compete at sports learned how to behave correctly learned how to have a good well-paying job

[00:03:46] That enabled you to occasionally snag an attractive partner

[00:03:49] Etc when all you really ever wanted was to be loved for being you and being alive

[00:03:56] Dancing through hoops like a carnival bear has grown tiresome

[00:03:59] You do not want to have to prove anything to anyone anymore

[00:04:04] Okay, so you feel betrayed by modern life in general which seems inherently meaningless and particularly

[00:04:11] Pointless is punctuated by increasing frustrations and disappointments and offers you only a

[00:04:17] Moticum of fleeting moments of contentment most often when you are drunk or asleep or both

[00:04:22] Well, welcome to late capitalism

[00:04:26] Welcome to the myth of romantic love welcome to democracy riddled with corruption and bribery

[00:04:31] Welcome to a society where passion is usually the result of two or three or four people's mutually complementary

[00:04:39] Disfunctionalities welcome to social media where you compare your complicated inner emotional states with everyone else's glitzy and gilded facades

[00:04:48] Welcome to the information age where you may be penalized for not showing up for 80 hours per week for a job that now

[00:04:55] Actually only takes four hours per week. Thanks to new technology

[00:04:59] Welcome to business for the sake of busyness

[00:05:03] Welcome to disenfranchisement

[00:05:05] Welcome to alienation welcome to unrootedness

[00:05:09] Welcome to modern medicine where everyone suffers from myriad afflictions that can only be remedied by the latest and greatest

[00:05:16] pharmaceuticals

[00:05:17] Welcome to modern banking where corporations spend most of their time trying to keep you in debt

[00:05:22] Welcome to our highly competitive educational system that teaches that every class has one winner and 40 losers

[00:05:29] Welcome to modern psychology that addresses mental and physiological symptoms with band-aid solutions

[00:05:36] because it is

[00:05:37] distinctly possible

[00:05:38] That many of the aforementioned instances of feelings of betrayal later in life could be

[00:05:43] Reopening of a primal abandonment wound resulting from being individuated to abruptly as we do under the

[00:05:50] Scientific what doesn't kill the little bugger makes it stronger paradigm of churning babies into productive members of society as quickly as possible

[00:05:58] This often results in those intensely productive widget builders

[00:06:02] suicidal gymnasts

[00:06:03] extreme sportists

[00:06:05] keyboard zappers and screen swipers having insecure attachment dynamics

[00:06:10] Always feeling not good enough that they will only be happy when they accomplish x when they summit the next peak when Bitcoin hits

[00:06:19] $500,000 that they are essentially unholy

[00:06:22] Imperfect and that there is perpetually something wrong with them that will be righted when if if only

[00:06:29] So how might you benefit from psychotherapy?

[00:06:32] On the cognitive level a therapist can provide fresh perspectives and help you reframe your current situation

[00:06:39] So that you can either make immediate changes or accept your state of affairs as

[00:06:44] Krishna Murthy famously said quote

[00:06:47] it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society and

[00:06:52] quote

[00:06:53] On an emotional level a therapist can support your authentic desire so that you do not feel like a fraud an

[00:07:00] imposter or a dancing bear about to be whipped for not performing up to the absurd measures of success that popular culture

[00:07:08] Advertising has indoctrinated you into believing as gospel in short

[00:07:13] Therapist model authenticity and help inspire and support you to be your highest and most authentic self in every situation

[00:07:22] Or at least when possible given the circumstances

[00:07:29] You just listened to the post titled ten reasons you would benefit from therapy by Ira Israel of

[00:07:35] iraisrael.com

[00:07:38] And thanks a lot to Ira for sharing today really great content from him as always

[00:07:43] You know, I think what's so effective about this post is the subtlety with which it encourages readers to

[00:07:49] Contemplate just how much meaning they've brought into their lives

[00:07:53] Outside of the expectations we've created and unsurprisingly been let down by

[00:07:58] It's not so subtle how he illustrates the many ways in which people can feel betrayed

[00:08:02] But it's worth mentioning that many who have these feelings of betrayal

[00:08:07] Aren't necessarily aware of them or at least proactive about them

[00:08:11] This post is like a form of therapy in itself in that it offers us a chance to reflect on what aspects of society

[00:08:18] We've obeyed and given ourselves over to in exchange for what we think will be happiness

[00:08:24] It reminds us of how we may have detached from our inner worlds and instead bought into systems that somehow promised us something

[00:08:32] Should that be the case?

[00:08:33] it's very easy for self-hatred to develop on a deep level and

[00:08:38] Exploring that is an essential part of reclaiming one's agency and therapy is the place to do it best

[00:08:43] So thanks to Ira for what I feel is very important material

[00:08:47] And thanks to you guys for staying with this post and hopefully being willing to check in with yourselves about what you've maybe

[00:08:53] Maybe chosen to believe in under false pretenses

[00:08:57] Time to get out of here for now

[00:08:58] But do come on back tomorrow as we start the parenting leg of the week and check out some great tips to build those relationships

[00:09:05] I'll see you all there where your optimal life awaits