10 Life Lessons You Should Unlearn

When I start this blog, I didn't expect to ever cite anything from Oprah Magazine! However, contributor Martha Beck's recent article is a sign that mindfulness and acceptance-based principles have entered the mainstream:

10 Life Lesson You Should Unlearn:

1. Problems are bad.
2. It's important to stay happy.
3. I'm irreparably damaged by my past.
4. Working hard leads to success.
5. Success is the opposite of failure.
7. We should think rationally about our decisions.
8. The pretty girls get all the good stuff.
9. If all my wishes came true right now, life would be perfect.
10. Loss is terrible.

The majority of these life lessons can be found in some form in modern psychological research and the contemplative traditions. (I don't think we have record of the Buddha's teachings on whether, "The pretty girls get all the good stuff," though. Perhaps he taught about it and it never made the transition from oral tradition to written scripture.)

The full article can be found online. The author Beck has written previously for Oprah Magazine about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.