Stress 3: trying to change you thought patterns
For many of the different ways that you might find yourself
affected by stress current psychological theory would suggest that tackling
your thoughts is another pretty effective strategy. One idea might be to begin
by list all the individual worries or stresses that you have, Writing them down
physically can often help to offer some clarity about the causes and can allow
you to prioritise the order in which to tackle the issues and identify who
could help you with each.
A cognitive behavioural therapy approach to managing stress
would also suggest that our bodies respond physically to thoughts as though
they are facts. For example, if you’re hungry and start to think of your
favourite food you’ll salivate. In the same way if you have any “worst case
scenario” thoughts your body will respond with a higher level of physical
reaction than might be needed. Try to notice if your thoughts are balanced, or
as is often common when feeling stressed, if some of the automatic thoughts
that pop into your head are overly negative. Try thinking of a moment when you
were especially stressed and then record all the negative thoughts that pop
into your mind. Once you’ve written them down the evidence suggests that if you
can evaluate them from a non-biased perspective, or get someone to help you to
do this, then you might be able to reduce some of the emotional distress. There
are lots of books or online resources that can help you with this or other CBT
techniques if this seems like it might be helpful for you.
A big thank you to Dr Katherine Preedy of putting this together for us. To conatct katherine please email preedypsychology@hotmail.co.uk
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