Change Your Thinking with CBT

I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.

Have you ever found yourself ruminating over some issue for hours or days, and later realised that it wasn’t really important after all?

the way we think determines the way we feel.

Sometimes we can make ourselves feel very miserable, even when our life circumstances are really not that bad, by thinking in a negative, self-defeating way.

if we can learn to think in a healthy balanced way, we can stop upsetting ourselves unnecessarily.

Changing the way we think about things changes the way we feel.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. BUDDHA

Cognitive strategies: learning to recognise the negative thinking habits that create distress, and using various techniques to develop more reasonable ways of thinking.

Behavioural strategies: undertaking various behaviours that help us to change the way we think and feel.

Our thoughts influence the way we feel and behave.

Our beliefs influence the contents of our thoughts, as well as our emotions and behaviours.

Bob believes that others should always do the right thing—and, in particular, they should obey the road laws. In fact, it was this belief, and not the other person’s poor driving, that made Bob feel angry. If Bob only held a preference that people should obey the road laws rather than a belief that they must always do so, Bob would have responded with brief irritation rather than anger.

if you believe that people must always do the right thing, chances are you are going to get upset on occasions when they don’t.

emotions can be described as the way we feel in our mind and body in response to events that occur.

Cognitive appraisal (the way we think about things)

Cognitive appraisal (the way we think about things) is based on the meaning that we give to the event.

Sometimes, however, we respond to unpleasant emotions by trying to numb them, rather than addressing the issue they are alerting us to.

Pleasant emotions are sometimes the ‘carrot’ that motivates us to make sacrifices in the ‘now’.

Pleasant emotions, such as joy, personal satisfaction, feelings of security or self-worth are the long-term rewards that motivate us to put our current desires on hold. However, as with unpleasant emotions