Rational thinking

The Five Rules for Ideally Healthy and, Therefore, Rational Thinking

1. Rational thinking is based on obvious facts.

2. Rational thinking best helps people protect their lives and health.

3. Rational thinking best helps people achieve their own short-term and long-term goals.

4. Rational thinking best helps people avoid their most unwanted conflicts with other people.

5. Rational thinking best helps people feel emotionally the way they want to feel without using alcohol or other drugs.

For thinking (and therefore any learned behavior) to be rational, it only has to obey at least three of these five rules at the same time. Habitually thinking rationally gives people the best probabilities for being as healthy, successful, and happy as they desire to be. There are almost no life situations that cannot be handled better with ideally healthy and, therefore, rational thinking.

This is like a litmus test for thinking. If a thought or belief doesn't pass the test, it doesn't belong in your head. Change it. Every person has a set of core beliefs. That is, what your most basic assumptions and expectations are about your self, your life and the world. The basic beliefs about everything that make you you. If they don't stand up to these five rules, then they are not rational thoughts and you need to change them.

One thing I know about myself is that many of my core beliefs about myself and about food are not rational. Depression is like a serial killer. It stalks and destroys rational thinking. Compulsive eating does the very same thing. Together they warp the thinking process and make a person believe things that simply are not true.

When you're fat you develop irrational core beliefs about food. Food is bad. Food is the enemy. Food is killing me. Or food is love, food is good, I can't get enough food. Food will make everything better. It's here I must eat it. All of these thoughts are, to put it simply, wrong. Not rational, they don't pass the litmus test.

I've been trying to (honestly) think about what my core beliefs are. To dig deep and figure out what it is that makes me me. What do I believe about me, you, them, that, those. About living, about death. About love and about hate. About healthy living and the way I currently live. I've discovered something. Or perhaps I'm finally able to admit it to myself. That is, I have a very hard time being honest with myself. My mind wants to avoid difficult subjects. It throws up walls and slams doors, not wanting to let me in.

I'm finding this rather troubling and I wonder if other people have the same issue. Is it hard for others to dig that deep into the self and come out with honest answers? Or is it something most other people simply know the answer to?

Are a persons core beliefs the same as a persons morality? I don't think so, at least not entirely. I suppose some are. Those regarding things like crime, murder, politics and religion. But the others. The ones about emotions? Love, hate, friendship. Food, diets. Life in general. What are they? What is it I truly believe? And are those beliefs rational?

I know that I do not believe in God. At least not the way religious people do. I believe there is something but know that I have absolutely no idea what that something is. However, I do believe in some of what the bible says. Not because it's religious, but because it's great advice.

Long before the 10 commandments were written, or spoken, the Egyptians had 42 "transgressions" or crimes that were written essentially as commandments. The entire lists can be found here:
But below I have kept those that I think ring to my core beliefs. These things I believe to be true above all else.

Transgressions Against Mankind

1. I have not committed murder, neither have I bid any one to slay on my behalf;
2. I have not committed rape, neither have I forced any one to commit fornication;

5. I have caused none to feel pain, nor have I worked grief;(I need to work on this)
6. I have done neither harm nor ill, nor I have caused misery;(this one too)
7. I have done no hurt to man, nor have I wrought harm to beasts;

10. I have not stolen, neither have I taken that which does not belong to me, nor that which belongs to another, nor have I taken from the orchards, nor snatched the milk from the mouth of the babe;(I truly despise thievery in any form)
11. I have not defrauded, neither I have added to the weight of the balance, nor have I made light the weight in the scales;
12. I have not laid waste the plowed land, nor trampled down the fields;
13. I have not driven the cattle from their pastures, nor have I deprived any of that which was rightfully theirs;
14. I have accused no man falsely, nor have I supported any false accusation;
15. I have spoken no lies, neither have I spoken falsely to the hurt of another;
16. I have never uttered fiery words, nor have I stirred up strife;(ummm, I need to work on this one too)
17. I have not acted guilefully, neither have I dealt deceitfully, nor spoken to deceive to the hurt another;
20. I have not stopped my ears against the words of Right and Truth;
22. I have committed no crime in the place of Right and Truth;
23. I have caused no wrong to be done to the servant by his master;
24. I have not been angry without cause;
27. I have never fouled the water, nor have I polluted the land.

Personal Transgressions

39. I have not been overly proud, nor have I behaved myself with arrogance;
40. I have never magnified my condition beyond what was fitting;

OK, so if you read the original list, you'll notice I deleted a lot. One of my core beliefs that comes to mind is; to thy own self be true. I don't believe it's OK to willfully cause harm or strife to others but at the same time I do not live my life to please others. I do not live my life to please a God I do not believe in.

So, all my other beliefs aside for now, what are they about food, health, exercise and my body? And are they rational? I don't know. I've never stopped and thought about them, not really. When I do I find them a great big jumble. Like a ball of rubber bands, all stacked on each other and twisted together.

So this is one of my new goals for the next day or two. Figuring out what my core beliefs are. The beliefs that make me who I am. And then to figure out which of those beliefs are rational and which are not. And then (I know, a lot of and thens) to change those beliefs that are not rational into ones that are.