This is one of the realities of life- Every time anyone sets a goal, there are also going to be obstacles. Obstacles of "I don't have enough time, money, energy, resources etc."
Obstacles can feel more real than goals; they seem to have weight and dimension. Because goals are further away and self defined, they may seem "less real". Please don't fall for the optical illusion.
Once you've identified the barriers to achieving a goal, it's often difficult to stop focusing on them rather than the goal itself. The reason is simple? the obstacles are closer to you. It's important that you learn to look up and over them so you can focus on the prize.
"Act as if" you have already achieved them, keep accessing the resources available to you and keeping moving forward. Remember that the things you're working towards are just as real as the items you need to overcome.
Think of one small thing this post may inspire you to do differently. Apply this inspiration to your scheduled activities today. Make it more real by writing your answer in your journal or on a post-it note.
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
"Life is made up of millions of moments, but we live only one of these moments at a time. As we begin to change this moment, we begin to change our lives"
D. Trinidad Hunt
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
Showing posts with label cognitive disortions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cognitive disortions. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Depressed, Anxious or Distorted? Part 3
In the previous posts we explored how your negative thoughts can create anxiety, depression and the conditions to act out in addiction. There is something you can do about these pesky personal demons, you can begin to challenge your thinking!
Review the 2 Cognitive Distortion lists outlined previously.
Next, do these steps by writing them out. Better yet, share and do these steps with someone you care about as you can help catch each other distortions.
What are your top 3 Distortions?
Often the more distortions we have or the more
intense they are, the more beat up you will feel.
Step 1: Write down negative thoughts rather than let them fly around in your head (writing the down will help you really catch them and more objectively see them, so you can then more objectively challenge them).
Step 2: Read over the cognitive distortions and note which ones apply to you.
Step 3: Replace cognitive distortions with objective thoughts.
Let’s run through an example…
Step 1: Cognitive Distortion- “It’s my fault my partner is depressed”
Step 2: What fits from the list?- Personalization
Step 3: More objective thought- “I’m not in control of my partner. I’m not able to “force them” into a depression”
Challenging your automatic, distorted assumptions will change the neuro-circuitry and neuro-chemistry of your brain. Meaning, it will help you overcome
depression, anxiety, stress etc where you won’t feel hijacked by your thoughts and feel more in control of your life and better about yourself.
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
Review the 2 Cognitive Distortion lists outlined previously.
Next, do these steps by writing them out. Better yet, share and do these steps with someone you care about as you can help catch each other distortions.
What are your top 3 Distortions?
Often the more distortions we have or the more
intense they are, the more beat up you will feel.
Step 1: Write down negative thoughts rather than let them fly around in your head (writing the down will help you really catch them and more objectively see them, so you can then more objectively challenge them).
Step 2: Read over the cognitive distortions and note which ones apply to you.
Step 3: Replace cognitive distortions with objective thoughts.
Let’s run through an example…
Step 1: Cognitive Distortion- “It’s my fault my partner is depressed”
Step 2: What fits from the list?- Personalization
Step 3: More objective thought- “I’m not in control of my partner. I’m not able to “force them” into a depression”
Challenging your automatic, distorted assumptions will change the neuro-circuitry and neuro-chemistry of your brain. Meaning, it will help you overcome
depression, anxiety, stress etc where you won’t feel hijacked by your thoughts and feel more in control of your life and better about yourself.
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
Friday, April 9, 2010
Depressed, Anxious or Distorted? Part 2
Last time we explored how your negative thoughts can create anxiety, depression and the conditions to act out in addiction. There is something you can do about these pesky personal demons, you can begin to challenge your thinking!
Research shows that engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or taking
prescribed medications (i.e. anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds) will BOTH work on the basal ganglia of your brain (i.e. the area in your brain that controls motor control and learning).
In other words psychotherapy and engaging in the act of challenging your distorted thoughts will change your brain’s neural pathways.
Here is Part 2 of the Cognitive Distortions List
Share and do these with a loved one:
Magnification or minimization:
Exaggerating your errors and belittling your
successes or exaggerating other people’s
success and minimizing their flaws.
Emotional Reasoning:
“I feel it, therefore it must be true.” Assuming
that negative emotions reflect the way things
really are.
Shoulds:
Trying to motivate yourself because you think
you “should” “must”, “out to” or “have to” do
something.
Labelling:
Attaching a label to yourself instead of
describing the error. Instead of thinking “I
left the water running” you think, “I’m such a
loser”.
Personalization:
Seeing yourself as the cause of a negative event
you did not cause.
Any of these sound familiar to you?
In an upcoming blog I'll share how you can take action
to change your thinking and change your life!
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
Research shows that engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or taking
prescribed medications (i.e. anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds) will BOTH work on the basal ganglia of your brain (i.e. the area in your brain that controls motor control and learning).
In other words psychotherapy and engaging in the act of challenging your distorted thoughts will change your brain’s neural pathways.
Here is Part 2 of the Cognitive Distortions List
Share and do these with a loved one:
Magnification or minimization:
Exaggerating your errors and belittling your
successes or exaggerating other people’s
success and minimizing their flaws.
Emotional Reasoning:
“I feel it, therefore it must be true.” Assuming
that negative emotions reflect the way things
really are.
Shoulds:
Trying to motivate yourself because you think
you “should” “must”, “out to” or “have to” do
something.
Labelling:
Attaching a label to yourself instead of
describing the error. Instead of thinking “I
left the water running” you think, “I’m such a
loser”.
Personalization:
Seeing yourself as the cause of a negative event
you did not cause.
Any of these sound familiar to you?
In an upcoming blog I'll share how you can take action
to change your thinking and change your life!
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Depressed, Anxious or Just Distorted?
Most of us to some degree struggle with distorting reality, seeing our world with a lens that reflects more of a cloudy mirror of the past (and all our hurts, traumas, disappointments etc) and this can often distort our reality in the present and/or anticipate the same negative outcome by distorting how we perceive the future.
These "negative" thoughts can create all kinds of self-fulfilling prophecies of painful perceptions of reality that appear familiar to us. When these distortions dominate our way of thinking, this will lead to depression, anxiety and addiction as "beliefs become biology" effect our emotions, perceptions, attitude, behaviour etc.
There is something you can do about these pesky personal demons, you can begin to challenge your thinking!
Research shows that engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or taking
prescribed medications (i.e. anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds) will BOTH work on the basal ganglia of your brain (i.e. the area in your brain that controls motor control and learning).
In other words psychotherapy and engaging in the act of challenging your distorted thoughts will change your brain’s neural pathways.
Here is Part 1 of the Cognitive Distortions List
Share and do these with a loved one:
All or Nothing Thinking
-Seeing everything as black or white, right or
wrong. If your performance falls short of
perfection, you see yourself as a total failure.
Using words such as “always” or “never” in
your self-talk or vocabulary is all or nothing.
-Overgeneralization
You see a single negative event as a neverending
pattern of defeat.
-Disqualifying the positive
Insisting that positive experiences don’t count
-Jumping to Conclusions:
Arriving at negative interpretations of events
without evidence to support the conclusions
-Mind Reading:
Randomly concluding that someone is
reacting negatively without investigating. ie “I
KNOW my boss gave me that strange look
because they KNOW that I was playing poker
late last night”
-Fortune Telling:
Anticipating negative outcomes then acting as
though they are already established fact. This
is also known as “negative outcome
expectancy”. ie “What’s the point in even
trying for that audition, there’s no way I’ll get the
part"
Any of these sound familiar to you?
In an upcoming blog I'll share more of the
most common distortion and what you can do about them
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
These "negative" thoughts can create all kinds of self-fulfilling prophecies of painful perceptions of reality that appear familiar to us. When these distortions dominate our way of thinking, this will lead to depression, anxiety and addiction as "beliefs become biology" effect our emotions, perceptions, attitude, behaviour etc.
There is something you can do about these pesky personal demons, you can begin to challenge your thinking!
Research shows that engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or taking
prescribed medications (i.e. anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds) will BOTH work on the basal ganglia of your brain (i.e. the area in your brain that controls motor control and learning).
In other words psychotherapy and engaging in the act of challenging your distorted thoughts will change your brain’s neural pathways.
Here is Part 1 of the Cognitive Distortions List
Share and do these with a loved one:
All or Nothing Thinking
-Seeing everything as black or white, right or
wrong. If your performance falls short of
perfection, you see yourself as a total failure.
Using words such as “always” or “never” in
your self-talk or vocabulary is all or nothing.
-Overgeneralization
You see a single negative event as a neverending
pattern of defeat.
-Disqualifying the positive
Insisting that positive experiences don’t count
-Jumping to Conclusions:
Arriving at negative interpretations of events
without evidence to support the conclusions
-Mind Reading:
Randomly concluding that someone is
reacting negatively without investigating. ie “I
KNOW my boss gave me that strange look
because they KNOW that I was playing poker
late last night”
-Fortune Telling:
Anticipating negative outcomes then acting as
though they are already established fact. This
is also known as “negative outcome
expectancy”. ie “What’s the point in even
trying for that audition, there’s no way I’ll get the
part"
Any of these sound familiar to you?
In an upcoming blog I'll share more of the
most common distortion and what you can do about them
Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski
info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/
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