Challenging Your Thoughts Remember that your thoughts are just thoughts. They are formed by experiences, perceptions, trauma, and beliefs. You can control them and even change them. The following skills may help you. I.
The Work
The following questions are from Byron Katie and are helpful in gaining skill in examining and shifting the thoughts that my control you or produce consequences you would like to change. 1. Is the thought true? 2. Can you absolutely know that it is true? 3. How do you react when you believe that thought? How does that feel? 4. Who would you be without that thought? Learn to question your thoughts. Don’t push them away, explore them for they are key II. A-‐B-‐C Worksheet (From Cognitive Processing Therapy: Veteran/Military Version Therapists Manual)
A= Activating Event – “Something Happens” B= Belief – “I tell myself something” (thoughts) C=Consequence – “I feel something” Outline the above ABC. Identify “what happened”, what “I told myself” and what “I felt”. Then ask: 1. Are my thoughts in “B” realistic? 2. What can I tell myself in the future when that event happens again?
Who Would You be Without Your Story, Byron Katie, 2008 Cognitive Processing Therapy: Veteran/Military Version Therapists Manual