Green Light Days

Do you ever have a “green light” day? The kind of day when you just seem to have the perfect timing, the perfect flow and you breeze through all intersections and all your “to dos” with ease and grace. You get to your destination early and you feel like you’re just a little bit superior that day. On the other hand, you’ve likely had “red light” days where you are literally stopped for minutes in traffic and feel frustration, impatience and disappointment. But ultimately, the destiny of how our day takes shape and our general attitude is really up to us and has nothing to do with the timing of traffic signals. Though that seems obvious, it was Dr. Aaron Beck, a renowned psychotherapist, who developed the discipline Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) where “people are encouraged to question their own self-disparaging assumptions and thought processes to change how they see themselves and the world around them. Unlike other talking therapies, it focuses on a patient's current problems to improve their daily outlook.” Dr. Beck just passed away at age 100 on November 1st and it is his legacy that reminds us that everyday can be a “green light” day if we are able to make that choice.