Recording your thoughts, if you're new to CBT or it's been a while since you practice it, I'd recommend
taking some time to record your thoughts and their effects before starting to challenge them.
Don't be surprised, though, if you spontaneously begin to adjust your way of thinking simply by being
more aware of your thoughts.
Our minds have an easier time recognizing things that aren't true.
Once we start to notice the stories we tell ourselves, we usually assume that events cause emotions
or actions.
Skipping over the interpretation we meet in CBT, we work to identify the thoughts between an event
and an emotion or a behavior.
When Susan had a disappointing performance review, she was aware of event, critical review, emotion,
sadness.
But the review didn't have the power to affect her emotionally.
And instead it was Susan's interpretation of what the review meant that drove her emotional response
even to critical review thoughts.
I'm missing everything about emotion, sadness.
The emotion Susan felt makes perfect sense once we know what her thought where we can also examine the
link between thoughts and behaviors.
For example, we might be trying to get out more, but we turned down an invitation to meet up with
a friend.
This sequence could like could look like an event invitation to meet with a friend.
Thoughts?
I probably have nothing to say.
Behavior turned down invitation.
When you encounter emotional challenges over the coming days, use this template to record your thoughts.
Oh, keep in mind that identifying thoughts takes practice.
While we can get better at it quickly, there is always room to grow and see what our minds are up to.
Our thoughts can have even more power when we consider that CBT model of thoughts, feelings and behaviors
equal that each of these components affects the others.
Thus, a single negative thought can be amplified because its effects reverberate through our feelings
and behaviors.