Section summary, this section introduce the crucial skills of recognizing and breaking our negative
thought patterns, you'll learn to look for clues and to listen closely, to discover what your mind
is telling you is also considered a blueprint for testing those thoughts against reality.
With a practice, you will probably find recurring themes that show up in your thoughts.
These themes are evidence for underlying beliefs that give rise to the negative automatic thoughts.
For now, I invite you to take the following action steps.
Pay attention for clues that negative automatic thoughts may be at work.
Example sudden drop in mood practice recording negative automatic thoughts.
Follow that downward arrow technique as needed to drill down to your actual distressing thoughts once
you feel comfortable with identifying your thoughts.
Use the five step plan to start testing them for accuracy as you gain experience.
Watching and clarifying your thoughts begin to do so in the moment without writing things down.
Return to the full written technique as needed for more challenging thoughts or to tune up your practice.