Best Life Therapy Blogs - Grief, Anxiety, Stress & More
- posted: Feb. 16, 2025
There are some great ways to practice training your brain to think more positively. As mentioned in previous posts, identifying unhelpful or irrational thinking errors is key. Being able to independently do that often requires some work outside of the therapy office. Journaling is one great strategy often recommended as part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT. This blog will give you a few ideas to help you get started. If you do these CBT exercises and are currently in therapy or planning to start therapy soon, it is recommended that you bring these with you to your session. Exploring where these thought patterns originated from can allow you to gain the insight required to more effectively challenge those thought patterns.
A simple way to practice reframing our thoughts through journaling is to draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left side, just journal as usual. For example, "today was cold and snowy and I felt so tired and sluggish. It feels like winter is never going to end." On the other side of the paper, go ahead and challenge that statement by closely examining the automatic thoughts. Ask yourself if that thought is helpful. On the right side of the paper, the next step is to challenge the thought. That might sound something like... "although it was cold and snowy today, it was beautiful outside. I was able to relax and unwind. I do know that spring is really not that far away. I'm grateful I had time to read some mental health blogs and I'm excited to try these new strategies!" It takes practice but with time and patience, we can slowly begin to rewire our brain.
Another way to easily challenge those thoughts is to separate your paper into three columns. In the first column, list some of your thoughts that cause you to feel anxious or depressed. This activity is called Fact-Checking. The second column is headed with the word, Fact and then the next heading of the third column is Opinion. As you go down the list reviewing each thought, place a checkmark under the correct category. Is it a Fact or an Opinion? Recognize that opinions are not necessarily true. This is a great time to ask yourself what type of thinking error this could be. Identifying the thinking error can make it easier to spot them later on. Review our blog called "Are your thoughts helping you or making it worse" for more details about common thinking errors.
A final journal writing activity to train your brain is by keeping a Dysfunctional Thought Record. When you do this activity, it can help to record the date and time and what was happening at the time the thought occurred. Next, you'll record the Automatic Thought. It is a good idea to rate how much you believe that thought. You could use a 5-point scale with 1 meaning that only a small part of you believes it and a 5 meaning you 100% believe it. If rating scales with numbers are not your thing, to signify how much you believe the thought you can write the words, a little, somewhat or a lot. Next, using the same scale, write down Emotion and describe how you were feeling and rate how intense you felt that. The next part may require some assistance, and this is where a therapist might be able to help. Write down the words Alternative Thought and use this area to write down a more adaptive thought or a better solution. Now, examine that initial thought again and re-rate how much you believe the original thought using the same scale. The purpose is not to convince yourself to believe things that are not true which is a common misconception with CBT but instead we are pausing to examine our thoughts. We are allowing time ourselves the time and space needed to think more rationally.
What we focus on tends to grow. When we spend our time focusing on all our worries and irrational thoughts, we tend to feel worse. Sometimes it helps to pause and ask, "what is another possibility" or "what would the people who care about me say." When we are anxious and think about the worst-case scenario, it helps to ask ourselves "what is really the worst thing that could happen" and then consider the likelihood of that actually happening. We know bad things do happen but when we look at how often occur statistically, it can help ease our mind. Asking ourselves what we would do if the worst-case scenario did happen and thinking about who could help us in that situation also can be helpful. Thinking about what our "Plan B" is can help us plan for those things while also reassuring ourselves that we have the skills needed to deal with it. Finally, asking "if my friend had this thought, what would I tell them."
Avoid trying to spend a lot of time planning for those worst-case scenarios. Remember that what we focus on tends to grow. Repeated thought patterns over time can rewire our brain. Let's repeat the ones we want to have more often. Start your day by thinking about what is going well and list 3 things you are thankful for. With time, patience and practice, you truly can develop healthy thought patterns. If you need assistance with these activities and want to dive deeper into your past, Best Life Therapy is here to help. We have online scheduling available and are also hiring additional therapists to better serve you! If you need support, reach out to us today. We are happy to help.
- posted: Feb. 16, 2025
There are some great ways to practice training your brain to think more positively. As mentioned in previous posts, identifying unhelpful or irrational thinking errors is key. Being able to independently do that often requires some work outside of the therapy office. Journaling is one great strategy often recommended as part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, CBT. This blog will give you a few ideas to help you get started. If you do these CBT exercises and are currently in therapy or planning to start therapy soon, it is recommended that you bring these with you to your session. Exploring where these thought patterns originated from can allow you to gain the insight required to more effectively challenge those thought patterns.
A simple way to practice reframing our thoughts through journaling is to draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left side, just journal as usual. For example, "today was cold and snowy and I felt so tired and sluggish. It feels like winter is never going to end." On the other side of the paper, go ahead and challenge that statement by closely examining the automatic thoughts. Ask yourself if that thought is helpful. On the right side of the paper, the next step is to challenge the thought. That might sound something like... "although it was cold and snowy today, it was beautiful outside. I was able to relax and unwind. I do know that spring is really not that far away. I'm grateful I had time to read some mental health blogs and I'm excited to try these new strategies!" It takes practice but with time and patience, we can slowly begin to rewire our brain.
Another way to easily challenge those thoughts is to separate your paper into three columns. In the first column, list some of your thoughts that cause you to feel anxious or depressed. This activity is called Fact-Checking. The second column is headed with the word, Fact and then the next heading of the third column is Opinion. As you go down the list reviewing each thought, place a checkmark under the correct category. Is it a Fact or an Opinion? Recognize that opinions are not necessarily true. This is a great time to ask yourself what type of thinking error this could be. Identifying the thinking error can make it easier to spot them later on. Review our blog called "Are your thoughts helping you or making it worse" for more details about common thinking errors.
A final journal writing activity to train your brain is by keeping a Dysfunctional Thought Record. When you do this activity, it can help to record the date and time and what was happening at the time the thought occurred. Next, you'll record the Automatic Thought. It is a good idea to rate how much you believe that thought. You could use a 5-point scale with 1 meaning that only a small part of you believes it and a 5 meaning you 100% believe it. If rating scales with numbers are not your thing, to signify how much you believe the thought you can write the words, a little, somewhat or a lot. Next, using the same scale, write down Emotion and describe how you were feeling and rate how intense you felt that. The next part may require some assistance, and this is where a therapist might be able to help. Write down the words Alternative Thought and use this area to write down a more adaptive thought or a better solution. Now, examine that initial thought again and re-rate how much you believe the original thought using the same scale. The purpose is not to convince yourself to believe things that are not true which is a common misconception with CBT but instead we are pausing to examine our thoughts. We are allowing time ourselves the time and space needed to think more rationally.
What we focus on tends to grow. When we spend our time focusing on all our worries and irrational thoughts, we tend to feel worse. Sometimes it helps to pause and ask, "what is another possibility" or "what would the people who care about me say." When we are anxious and think about the worst-case scenario, it helps to ask ourselves "what is really the worst thing that could happen" and then consider the likelihood of that actually happening. We know bad things do happen but when we look at how often occur statistically, it can help ease our mind. Asking ourselves what we would do if the worst-case scenario did happen and thinking about who could help us in that situation also can be helpful. Thinking about what our "Plan B" is can help us plan for those things while also reassuring ourselves that we have the skills needed to deal with it. Finally, asking "if my friend had this thought, what would I tell them."
Avoid trying to spend a lot of time planning for those worst-case scenarios. Remember that what we focus on tends to grow. Repeated thought patterns over time can rewire our brain. Let's repeat the ones we want to have more often. Start your day by thinking about what is going well and list 3 things you are thankful for. With time, patience and practice, you truly can develop healthy thought patterns. If you need assistance with these activities and want to dive deeper into your past, Best Life Therapy is here to help. We have online scheduling available and are also hiring additional therapists to better serve you! If you need support, reach out to us today. We are happy to help.
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- Photo taken at Flushing County Park, Michigan