Our body's innate ability to return to health is based on three simple principles: circulation, assimilation, and elimination. The prescription for mental health is the same. Thoughts are meant to circulate and flow, just like everything that is healthy. When things go smoothly it's often because we are present in the moment and able to observe our thoughts scrolling by like a ticker tape, an endless stream of ever-changing modifications.

If we're judging ourselves, our ticker tape will reflect our personal "stock" volatility in its upward and downward spikes in value. "That was a good move. I'm smart!" you say one day. Days or even moments later, our stock plummets: "I'm an idiot!" Author Robert Bly names these two sides of our seemingly split personality, The Grandiose One and her twin, Utter Worthlessness. But this isn't who we are. It's only when we take either side too seriously that we get into trouble.