Changing the Course Of Automatic Thoughts

Changing the Course Of Automatic Thoughts

I have an upcoming audio series I am releasing (for members) that focuses on the complete mental aspect of body composition. I thought it was going to be 2 hours, but it is turning into quite an epic recording. I took additional time to record a bonus on cognitive behavior and its relation to body composition.

Cognitive Distortions

One of the areas I am providing you a preview to is learning to identify, and hopefully alter, your negative automatic thoughts. Below is a list (the basis originating from David D. Burns) of the top 10 mental distortions we take part in during our daily lives. Take a moment to read through them. You might be surprised how they apply not only to your body composition, but to your life in general.

1. All-Or-Nothing Thinking

The Problem: It’s pretty self explanatory, but incredibly powerful. When you imagine one person not liking you, it can turn into everyone. If you cheat with one meal, it has to become the whole day or weeks. It doesn’t only apply to actions, it apply to thoughts as well.

Albert Ellis first presented the idea of irrational beliefs. Here are some examples of irrational beliefs:

I cannot be happy unless everyone likes me.
If I do what is expected of me, my life will be wonderful.
Bad things don’t happen to good people.
Good things don’t happen to bad people.
In the end, bad people will always get punished.
If I am intelligent (or work hard), I will be successful.

The Solution: While it may not be easy to swallow those things, and we perhaps can’t help our initial feeling and reactions, we have to change how we consciously react in all-or-nothing behavior.

2. Overgeneralization

The Problem: One negative becomes everything being negative. This is different from the first because this doesn’t even have to relate to the same negative actions or thoughts. For example, if you get into a car wreck, you automatically assume your diet is shot for the rest of the day. If you are extra creative you can work it out that your relationship is going to fall apart. Extra bonus points if you think the person is going to sue you and you will end up homeless.

The Solution: Remind yourself when bad events take place – it is one bad event. This one event does not have to shape the entire course of your life. Most importantly, it doesn’t have to end negatively.

3. Mental Filter

The Problem: You focus on one thing, and one thing only to dwell on. It can be weight loss, it can be your brother or sister, or your job. Whatever it is, nothing is more devastating or crushing than this one “thing.” It rules all and steals your happiness thunder.

The Solution: Sometimes you have to forcefully and consciously change your thoughts as they happen. Work on focusing on other things, goals, and dreams. Keep a sheet of ideas to think about when you find yourself getting caught up in yourself.

4. Disqualifying The Positive

The Problem: Good things couldn’t possibly happen to you. Even if they do, you knock them out with negative thoughts or focusing on the potential or conjured negatives. If you receive a compliment by your boss today you think “he gives them to Craig more.” If you lose 2 pounds you think “Greeeat, 2 pounds. 59 more to go and it was mostly water anyway. Whoo f**king hoo.”

The Solution: No matter how small, celebrate the successes. If the negatives creep in, bounce back with the positive that takes place.

5. Jumping To Conclusions

The Problem: You don’t even know what the outcome is going to be yet, but already you are preparing for the worse. There are two aspects of this – Fortune Telling and Mind Reading. If you believe it will happen, then it will! It just so happens it’s only the negative things.

You can see all of the future and read everyone’s minds. You know that eventually you are going to be sad, lonely, on the verge of killing yourself – before you even start something.

The Solution: If you must Fortune Tell or Mind Read, try to make it positive or at least realistic. Also try to keep in mind that as scary of a thought as it is, we have no way of knowing what tomorrow holds. All we can do is try to plan for it the best we can with positive and logical decisions.

6. Magnification Or Minimizing

The Problem: Making something a little worse are we? This is kind of like when 2 and 4 come together to make one big worry child. Someone says, “Are you okay, you don’t look like you feel well today?” You re-work that in your head to say, “Omg, are you dying! You look like you are dying and are quite ugly! Run to the hospital now, run!”

The Solution: People don’t think about you as much as you do. In someway, you are practicing narcissist behavior here and need to realize that the world, both negative and positive, doesn’t revolve around you. Start taking events or what people say (complements or criticism) as exactly what happens, instead of what you make happen in your mind.

7. Emotional Reasoning

The Problem: You start thinking that the presence of the negative thoughts mean things must be true and the way they are. Have you ever looked at a sharp object, imagined it flying out of control and hurting someone (like kids running with scissors or a big kitchen knife). Have you followed that thought with “OMG, why did I just think that? I must be a horrible person to think something like that!?” You aren’t, in fact you are so normal that we must all be “horrible” people.

The same applies to dieting when you think, “Today I just want to cheat!”

“Omg, why do I think that, why can’t I be strong like everyone else?”

“Why am I the only one who has these problems?”

“I must be weak. I will never be able to do this.”

The Solution: First, you need to accept the fact that everyone does these things, even the really weird ones. Nothing is wrong with you, it’s a busy mind and a lot of hours to fill in generally boring days. The next thing you need to do is derail it when you notice it. Positive talk replacement whenever you can.

8. Should Statements

The Problem: “They should understand.” “I should be able to do this.” “They should be a better friend for me during this.”

The Solution: All that lands on the end of should statements is guilt and anger towards yourself or others. Instead of should, focus on what you did and have done.

9. Labeling/Mislabeling

The Problem: Since you did “x” you must be a bad person. You must be crazy. You must be untrustworthy. They must be a bad person. They must be crazy. They are a liar. Feeling the need to label everything and set it aside as “solved” makes it pretty hard to work towards change, doesn’t it?

The Solution: Avoid making blanket statements, even in jest about your personal character or others. Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t as many “bad” people in the world as you think. You certainly don’t have to be one of the bad people. Work away from labels and more towards situation identification.



10. Personalization

The Problem: Everything is ruined, because of you. No one in your family gets along, because of you. If it wasn’t for you, things would be better for other people. If you only worked harder and did things better, everyone else would be happier.

The Solution: Usually this is involved with people pleasing. I believe we should care about people, but it should be in the right ways. The best way to treat people well, is to treat yourself well. In the end, everyone’s journey is their own to do what they will with it. You focus on your journey and yours alone.

Take home point

It takes work. Being happy takes work. Sure there are the lucky few who live in a ignorant bliss, but most of us spend our time searching for how to not feel fear, live in fear, or to be better than we think we are. Take the time today to really think about how you are thinking and see if you can’t re-work your thoughts to a more positive outcome.

Before starting any new diet and exercise program please check with your doctor and clear any exercise and/or diet changes with them before beginning. I am not a doctor or registered dietitian. I do not claim to cure any cause, condition or disease. I do not provide medical aid or nutrition for the purpose of health or disease and claim to be a doctor or dietitian. This is merely an opinion blog. Read full disclaimer here - http://www.leighpeele.com/disclaimer

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