Toni Bernhard
I'm the author of four books: "How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness: A Mindful Guide"; "How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow"; "How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers" (now in a second edition); and my new book "How to Be Sick: Your Pocket Companion" due out in May, 2020. I am so excited about this Pocket Companion. It's both a guide for those who've read "How to Be Sick" and it's a stand-alone book! My popular blog, “Turning Straw Into Gold” is hosted on the website of Psychology Today. I can be found online at www.tonibernhard.com.
“Behind every stressful thought is the desire for things to be other than they are.”
Toni Bernhard
“t can be eye-opening to think of some of the unrealistic expectations we hold ourselves to. These are the “shoulds” we set up in our lives which then become the breeding ground for embarrassment: I should never spill a drink; I should never lose my footing, even on slippery pavement; I should never misunderstand another person’s behavior (the latter misunderstanding having constituted my “chrysalis crime.”)”
Toni Bernhard
“What is embarrassment? In general, embarrassment is an emotional response to an innocent mistake. The major reason that some of us are embarrassment-prone is that we’ve been conditioned to set unrealistically high expectations for ourselves and to judge ourselves negatively when we can’t possibly meet those standards. A second reason that makes us susceptible to embarrassment is that we’ve been taught to take our cue in evaluating ourselves from what we assume (often erroneously) to be others’ opinions of us.”
Toni Bernhard