1) Simple Awareness
Thought distortions are extremely powerful, in part because they have probably been operating for so long that they have become automatic. Increasing your awareness of your most common distortions can help in two ways. First, anytime you make an automatic process conscious, it tends to make the process less efficient. When experienced typists what their hands and concentrate on moving their fingers their speed slows down considerably. What is bad for typing is good for thinking, because you want to disrupt those thought distortions.
Second, when thoughts occur without your awareness you cannot bring your critical mind to look at them. It is like signing papers that come across your desk without reading them; how would you know if there were any errors in them? Increasing your awareness of your most common distortions can help you to examine your thoughts for errors, mistaken assumptions, and biases.
2) Thought Challenging
Sometimes you will find yourself thinking in an unrealistically negative way, and simple awareness will not be enough to overcome some of the negative feelings it brings up. At these times you need to argue with the negative thoughts more actively. Remember that longstanding patterns of negative thinking have the advantage of habit, so they can be difficult to deal with. But if you examine your negative thoughts, you will usually find parts that don't really make sense. You might be telling yourself that you can't handle something, when in reality you have handled similar situations in the past. You might be thinking that nobody cares about you, when really you can think of several people who care. Repeat those observations to yourself. Negative thoughts tend to occur over and over again, so you will need to dwell on and repeat your more realistic replacement thoughts just as often.
Sometimes it can be difficult to get the perspective on your problem that you need. At these times you can imagine that it is a friend of your who is saying these negative things to themselves. Your friend is explaining their thoughts to you, and you are helping them see how distorted the ideas are. Argue with your friend, repeat over and over what you really know to be the more positive or neutral truth.
Step by step guide:
1. Become aware of your negative thoughts
2. Evaluate them to find any distortions
3. Replace distorted thoughts with more accurate revised thoughts which remind you of your strength, worth, and positive aspects of life
4. Repeat your more realistic thoughts to yourself
This process takes practice, but tends to become easier, quicker, and more effective over time. It is well worth the effort.
3) Thought Interruption
When you realize you are thinking negatively, quickly tell yourself "I'm going to stop thinking about that now". Try to return to whatever non-negative thoughts you were having before the negative automatic thought began. You can also move on to think about a positive or neutral thought, similarly to the above example.
If this redirection does not work, you can try thought stopping. At first you may want to practice this technique when you are alone, but this technique can be used anywhere you feel comfortable doing so. Loudly say to yourself "STOP" when a negative automatic thought first appears. This technique allows you to freeze the thinking and move on to a different train of thought. Once the loud "STOP" command begins to work for you, you can decrease the volume. Eventually, you may be able to simply think "STOP" to get your mind away from negative thinking.
4) Distracting
An acronym to remember these skills is ACCEPTS. Do not practice any distractions that trigger your thought distortions; instead choose another distraction or another technique.
Activities - Examples include exercise, cleaning, events, visit a friend, computer or video games, walking, sports, hobbies like fishing, gardening, or crafting. Etc.
Contributing - Give your time, money, or other resources to a cause you believe in, find a gift for someone you know, create something for a loved one, do a random act of kindness, etc.
Comparison/Compassion - Compare yourself to people going through similar or more difficult circumstances. Compare yourself to those less fortunate than you. Reflect on compassionate feelings towards your own situation, and the situations of others who are struggling or suffering.
opposite Emotions - Read books, watch movies, or listen to music which gives you emotions different to the one you are trying to distract from. Suggestions: thrilling or scary movies, jokes or comedy, spiritual or uplifting music, etc.
Pushing away - Push the situation out of your mind. Build an imaginary wall in your mind between you and the situation. Refuse to think about it for a while. Give yourself a break from the painful aspects of the situation; you can come back and deal with it after a break.
other Thoughts - Examples include counting numbers in your head, or the colors around you, puzzles, television, reading, etc.
intense Sensations - Example include holding ice in your hand, squeezing a rubber ball, taking a cool or hot shower, listening to loud music, snapping a rubber band on your skin, etc.
5) Worrying Time
Decide on a specific time during the day when you will think about your automatic thoughts. Set aside no longer than 30 minutes to worry about things.
Keep a notepad, note cards, or sticky notes around, and when you have a worrying thought write it down there so that you can address it during your worry time. Do not spend time thinking about, problem solving, or stressing over those thoughts.
When it is Worry Time, limit your distractions and pull out the thoughts you have recorded. Take time to consider whether they are irrational thoughts that need to be challenged, and problem solve any issues you're dealing with. When Worry Time is over, stop worrying and thinking about these thoughts, and try to practice the challenges you've come up with in the rest of your day.
6) The Blow-Up Technique
This technique is mostly unhelpful for those who struggle with catastrophizing, but it can be a creative challenge for some others and they may end up conquering their fears.
Exaggerate the disturbing thought out of all proportion, making it completely ridiculous. Imagine the most extreme consequences possible. For instance, if I phone my old friend, she won't remember me. She will tell the police she has a nuisance caller. They will trace the call to me and arrest me. I'll spend the rest of my life in prison with violent offenders... The sillier it gets, the less you will believe in it, and the less that thought will be able to bother you in the future.
*Use the techniques which feel most useful to you. Don't be afraid to try out techniques which seem strange or uncomfortable to you at first; you may find some surprising results with them. However, leave behind any techniques which are more harmful to you or are ineffective.*
Thought distortions are extremely powerful, in part because they have probably been operating for so long that they have become automatic. Increasing your awareness of your most common distortions can help in two ways. First, anytime you make an automatic process conscious, it tends to make the process less efficient. When experienced typists what their hands and concentrate on moving their fingers their speed slows down considerably. What is bad for typing is good for thinking, because you want to disrupt those thought distortions.
Second, when thoughts occur without your awareness you cannot bring your critical mind to look at them. It is like signing papers that come across your desk without reading them; how would you know if there were any errors in them? Increasing your awareness of your most common distortions can help you to examine your thoughts for errors, mistaken assumptions, and biases.
2) Thought Challenging
Sometimes you will find yourself thinking in an unrealistically negative way, and simple awareness will not be enough to overcome some of the negative feelings it brings up. At these times you need to argue with the negative thoughts more actively. Remember that longstanding patterns of negative thinking have the advantage of habit, so they can be difficult to deal with. But if you examine your negative thoughts, you will usually find parts that don't really make sense. You might be telling yourself that you can't handle something, when in reality you have handled similar situations in the past. You might be thinking that nobody cares about you, when really you can think of several people who care. Repeat those observations to yourself. Negative thoughts tend to occur over and over again, so you will need to dwell on and repeat your more realistic replacement thoughts just as often.
Sometimes it can be difficult to get the perspective on your problem that you need. At these times you can imagine that it is a friend of your who is saying these negative things to themselves. Your friend is explaining their thoughts to you, and you are helping them see how distorted the ideas are. Argue with your friend, repeat over and over what you really know to be the more positive or neutral truth.
Step by step guide:
1. Become aware of your negative thoughts
2. Evaluate them to find any distortions
3. Replace distorted thoughts with more accurate revised thoughts which remind you of your strength, worth, and positive aspects of life
4. Repeat your more realistic thoughts to yourself
This process takes practice, but tends to become easier, quicker, and more effective over time. It is well worth the effort.
3) Thought Interruption
When you realize you are thinking negatively, quickly tell yourself "I'm going to stop thinking about that now". Try to return to whatever non-negative thoughts you were having before the negative automatic thought began. You can also move on to think about a positive or neutral thought, similarly to the above example.
If this redirection does not work, you can try thought stopping. At first you may want to practice this technique when you are alone, but this technique can be used anywhere you feel comfortable doing so. Loudly say to yourself "STOP" when a negative automatic thought first appears. This technique allows you to freeze the thinking and move on to a different train of thought. Once the loud "STOP" command begins to work for you, you can decrease the volume. Eventually, you may be able to simply think "STOP" to get your mind away from negative thinking.
4) Distracting
An acronym to remember these skills is ACCEPTS. Do not practice any distractions that trigger your thought distortions; instead choose another distraction or another technique.
Activities - Examples include exercise, cleaning, events, visit a friend, computer or video games, walking, sports, hobbies like fishing, gardening, or crafting. Etc.
Contributing - Give your time, money, or other resources to a cause you believe in, find a gift for someone you know, create something for a loved one, do a random act of kindness, etc.
Comparison/Compassion - Compare yourself to people going through similar or more difficult circumstances. Compare yourself to those less fortunate than you. Reflect on compassionate feelings towards your own situation, and the situations of others who are struggling or suffering.
opposite Emotions - Read books, watch movies, or listen to music which gives you emotions different to the one you are trying to distract from. Suggestions: thrilling or scary movies, jokes or comedy, spiritual or uplifting music, etc.
Pushing away - Push the situation out of your mind. Build an imaginary wall in your mind between you and the situation. Refuse to think about it for a while. Give yourself a break from the painful aspects of the situation; you can come back and deal with it after a break.
other Thoughts - Examples include counting numbers in your head, or the colors around you, puzzles, television, reading, etc.
intense Sensations - Example include holding ice in your hand, squeezing a rubber ball, taking a cool or hot shower, listening to loud music, snapping a rubber band on your skin, etc.
5) Worrying Time
Decide on a specific time during the day when you will think about your automatic thoughts. Set aside no longer than 30 minutes to worry about things.
Keep a notepad, note cards, or sticky notes around, and when you have a worrying thought write it down there so that you can address it during your worry time. Do not spend time thinking about, problem solving, or stressing over those thoughts.
When it is Worry Time, limit your distractions and pull out the thoughts you have recorded. Take time to consider whether they are irrational thoughts that need to be challenged, and problem solve any issues you're dealing with. When Worry Time is over, stop worrying and thinking about these thoughts, and try to practice the challenges you've come up with in the rest of your day.
6) The Blow-Up Technique
This technique is mostly unhelpful for those who struggle with catastrophizing, but it can be a creative challenge for some others and they may end up conquering their fears.
Exaggerate the disturbing thought out of all proportion, making it completely ridiculous. Imagine the most extreme consequences possible. For instance, if I phone my old friend, she won't remember me. She will tell the police she has a nuisance caller. They will trace the call to me and arrest me. I'll spend the rest of my life in prison with violent offenders... The sillier it gets, the less you will believe in it, and the less that thought will be able to bother you in the future.
*Use the techniques which feel most useful to you. Don't be afraid to try out techniques which seem strange or uncomfortable to you at first; you may find some surprising results with them. However, leave behind any techniques which are more harmful to you or are ineffective.*
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