The power of thoughts for something that can be seen or heard or measured thoughts have incredible power.
Our mood for an entire day can hang on how we interpret a single disappointment.
Thoughts can also have a profound effect on our behavior, affecting whether we feel guilty or retaliate,
engage or withdraw, reserve or give up, no matter what you've been struggling with.
Chances are that your thoughts have played a role either in causing your distress or in prolonging it.
In CBT, these distressing thoughts are called negative automatic thoughts because they come with no
effort on our part, just as our thoughts can cause us unnecessary pain if they can also help us heal,
if we harness them to work in our favor.
The word harness is perfect in this context because it means to control something in order to make use
of it.
We cannot only stop our thoughts from tearing us down, but also can use them to build ourselves up.
Let's turn to Susan, who's having a rough day on her.
Ranie drive home from work.
She rear ended the car in front of her after she sorted things out with the other driver, who was not
terribly friendly about it.
She sat in her car and did what all of us do when something upsetting happens.
She thought about it.
Susan's first thought was, that's one more thing.
I've messed up now.
They will raise my insurance rates.
And then the image of her friend Kathy came to mind and she wondered what she would tell Kathy.
Susan definitely would not speak to Kathy with an internal voice she directed at herself.
She imagine telling her friend it was raining and you were in a hurry to get home after a long day at
work.
You're human.
Don't beat yourself up.
Maybe Kathy was right.
She thought maybe I'm doing better than I think.
She even smiled to herself and was remembering how grumpy the man she ended had to be.
She felt a proud of herself for having kept her composure with him.
As they exchange insurance information.
She saw that her positivity had caused the man to drop his afternoon.
I guess I handled that all right, she thought to herself as she continued to drive home.
Our thoughts often serve us well, helping us make wise decisions.
At other times, our thinking is skewed.
Psychologists have demonstrated many biases that are built into the human psyche, and these biases
can be especially pronounced when we're experiencing extreme emotional states like anger or depression.
For example, I might believe someone is trying to embarrass me when in fact their intentions are completely
benign.
The more often we make these kinds of thinking errors, the more likely you will experience conditions
like severe and anxiety.
Let's consider a plan for identifying and addressing these errors.