Welcome back to the savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. We all know the basics of being healthy. Eat well, exercise, and get some rest, especially

when you've got your country's 500th anniversary to plan, your wedding to arrange, your

wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. Because, as they say, if you haven't got your

health, you haven't got anything. But how to improve the health that happens between our

ears? Today we'll do a checkup of seven beliefs

emotionally healthy people hold. Now two big footnotes on this. One,

nobody is 100% healthy, 100% of the time. We each struggle in our own way.

So don't be alarmed if you think your own belief system could use some shoring up.

Two, I'll be the first to say there is no rigidly definitive list of healthy beliefs.

But in my humble opinion, these are the biggies.

So let's count them down, leaving the most important for the end.

Belief number seven is I can stay the course. This belief gives rise to two attributes grit and self-control.

Grit is staying the course long term. It's doing difficult or tedious stuff over months

or years in service of a larger goal.

You might make a commitment to study algebra every night, even if you hate it, to get your GED.

You might bring your lunch to work and skip Starbucks for a year in order to save for that Alaska cruise.

You might perform your stand-up routine to some lost German tourists, a couple of drunk guys, and that heckler who is always there in order to further your comedy career.

By contrast, self-control is staying the course short term.

Call this resisting temptation. It's keeping your cool even

when the bank teller seems to be working in super slow mow. It's not taking the bait

of the guy with the facial tattoo taunting you from the end of the bar.

It's sticking to your diet,

...