If you’ve ever felt “stuck on autopilot,” UAlbany psychology professor John P. Forsyth, Ph.D., has some advice for you: “Connecting with your deeper feelings about what’s important to you” makes for a happier, more successful life.

Forsyth, a licensed psychologist who directs the University’s Anxiety Disorders Research Program, has felt “stuck,” too. As a young adult expected to join his parents’ business, he took the real-estate exam and failed. “My heart wasn’t in it,” Forsyth recalls. 

Instead, he worked for two years as a psychology technician at Boston’s National Center for PTSD – Behavioral Sciences Division, where he “developed a passion for research.” He later earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West Virginia University and completed a pre-doctoral residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, where he served as chief resident. 

Many of us “go through the motions, doing what we think we should be doing, or ought to be doing,” notes Forsyth, co-author, with Georg Eifert, Ph.D., of Anxiety Happens: 52 Ways to Find Peace of Mind. “If left unchecked, we can end up living an idea of a life that is not our own, and eventually find ourselves headed down a path of regret and despair. To get a different outcome in life, we have to be willing to change what we’re doing.” 

Forsyth observes: “Once humans develop the capacity for language and cognition, we very quickly lose contact with the present moment. We over-identify with thoughts and take them literally, even if they don’t serve us well: ‘I’m stupid.’ ‘I can’t do this.’ ‘I’m not good enough.’”

It’s important instead to focus on “the things that matter to you in life,” rather than “trying to change what you think and feel. The more you try to avoid a feeling or memory, the more you’ll experience it. There’s just no healthy way not to think a thought without thinking it. It’s like trying not to think about a pink elephant. You end up with pink elephants stuck in your head.”

We give too much credence to “the inner critic” – thoughts, judgments, evaluations, and so on.  “We miss that we are historical creatures. Our nervous systems are additive, not subtractive. So, what you and I think, feel, remember now is a mix of everything that has come before,” explains Forsyth.

Currently on sabbatical, Forsyth will return to UAlbany in the fall. He regularly teaches the graduate course Adult Psychopathology and an undergraduate course, Abnormal Psychology.

Link to John Forsyth’s webpage at www.drjohnforsyth.com.