| If our thoughts and feelings are causing us | | | | I am at work and I start to feel anxious. One |
| trouble, making us miserable, or causing us to act | | | | minute I'm working on an upcoming project, and |
| out in ways we don't want to, how can we get a | | | | the next minute I'm so distracted by worry that I |
| better picture of this cycle and learn how to | | | | can't even think about what I'm supposed to be |
| change it? Our thoughts are going on continuously, | | | | doing. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm in |
| creating our emotions, and we rarely stop to | | | | my cubicle, typing, and my boss walks by and |
| really think about what they mean. If we take | | | | looks at me before moving on. Why did he look |
| stock of the situations that have caused us | | | | at me like that? Does he think that I'm not |
| problems throughout the day, though, we can | | | | working hard enough? Does he think that I'm not |
| often recognize what we were thinking at the | | | | going to get the project done on time? Is he |
| time. At first this will take a bit of effort, but | | | | trying to see if I was taking care of personal |
| once we realize the negative thoughts that we're | | | | business while I am working? I hope he doesn't |
| having habitually, we can create a new habit of | | | | think that I'm not a hard worker. |
| recognizing them almost as soon as they pop up. | | | | This is a simplified view of the process. Here we |
| Keeping a journal of our automatic thoughts-the | | | | can see what the person was thinking when the |
| thoughts that cause our feelings in any given | | | | anxiety hit them. They were thinking that their |
| situation-can help us to see them more | | | | boss thinks that they don't do a good job. This |
| consciously. Not everyone can carry a journal | | | | automatic assessment of the simple act of the |
| around with them and write down automatic | | | | boss stopping to glance in their direction while |
| thoughts as soon as they arise, but this isn't | | | | walking past causes anxiety, although the person |
| necessary. At the end of the day, look back over | | | | doesn't even seem to relate the thought and the |
| the situations in which you felt anxious, sad, | | | | feeling at the time. Journaling our automatic |
| angry, or uncomfortable. Write down exactly | | | | thoughts in this way can help us to eventually get |
| what was happening. Use as many details as | | | | to the underlying negative core beliefs. After |
| possible. As you do this, try to remember what | | | | going through this process several times, we can |
| your thoughts were at the time. It helps if you | | | | start to make the connection between what |
| keep it in present tense. Were you thinking along | | | | we're thinking and the resulting emotions. Once |
| the lines of one of the cognitive distortions? Were | | | | we're better at recognizing negative automatic |
| you thinking negative things about yourself or the | | | | thoughts as soon as they occur, we can learn |
| people around you? Were you thinking negatively | | | | ways of coping with them, and this will reduce the |
| about the events that were going on at the time? | | | | effect they have on our feelings and actions at |
| Here's a sample of what an entry might look like: | | | | any given moment. |