Changing the Way You Think - Exercise

Exercise 1 and 2 are to be completed by everyone.

Complete exercise 3 if you feel guilty about anything to do with the trauma you went through or events stemming from it.

Exercise 1 - Identifying Unhelpful Thinking

Read through the examples of ‘faulty thinking’ below. Do you think in any of these ways? Give an example of any thoughts you tend to have that fit these descriptions. Write your answers on a piece of paper, in your blue file or in a Word document. You may want to refer back to Michael and Chloe’s examples to help you. Bring the completed exercise to your next guidance session.

1. Personalizing - (when you blame yourself for events outside your control)

2. Catastrophizing – (when you turn everything into a catastrophe)                                         

3. Over-Generalization – (when you think something happening once means it will always happen)                                      

4. Emotional Reasoning- (when you assume everything you feel is true)

5. Labelling- (when you put a negative label on yourself after an incident)

6. All or Nothing Thinking – (when  you think in extremes)

7. Jumping to Conclusions – (when you jump to a conclusion)

8. Mind reading  – (when you decide what another person is thinking)

9. Negative Bias – (when you focus on negative aspects of a situation)

10. Should statements – (when you tell yourself that things should have turned out better)

Exercise 2 - Thought Diary

A thought diary can help you identify the thoughts that are to blame for feelings of anxiety and distress.

Your mind will have a variety of thoughts passing through it at any given time. These automatic thoughts are called 'self-talk'. This dialogue is largely automatic. Stop for a moment and try thinking about nothing… you will find it is very difficult.

Patterns of positive or negative self-talk often start in childhood and continue to effect how you feel and act throughout your life. Self Talk can however be altered. The first step toward change is to become more aware of the problem. You probably don’t realize how often you think in a negative way.

Keeping a Thought Diary can help you become more conscious of your internal dialogue and what you can do to gradually alter it. You’ll find your thought diary at the back of the programme in the Diary section. Follow the steps below to complete the exercise. Your therapist will ask to see your Thought Diary during your next guidance session.

  • Keep the Thought Diary with you throughout the day. Whenever you experience an unpleasant or distressing thought or feeling, take it out and fill it in.
  • First, write down the date and time. This will help you monitor when you have particular thoughts.
  • Describe the situation you were in. Include information about where you were, what you were doing, who you were with and what was going on around you. What were you thinking about before the distressing thought?
  • The next task is to describe the thought(s) which cause you distress. How firmly do you believe in the thought? Rate your belief in the thought from 0–10 (0=I don’t believe the thought at all; 10=I believe the thought to be completely true).
  • Write down the emotions you felt and the bodily sensations you experienced. Rate how much distress the emotions and bodily sensations arising from the thought(s) caused from 0-10 (0=no distress; 10=overwhelming distress)
  • What is the evidence to support the distressing thought? Record this in your Thought Diary. Then examine the evidence against the thought – write this in too.
  • Finally think of an alternate, more positive thought to replace the one that caused distress. Rate your belief in the alternate thought from 0–10 (0=I don’t believe the thought at all; 10=I believe the thought to be completely true).

Exercise 3 - Overcoming Feelings of Guilt - **Complete this exercise if you feel guilty about any aspects of the trauma you went through**

1. Describe your guilty feelings. What exactly do you feel guilty about? Write your answers on a piece of paper, in your blue file or in a Word document.


2. Look at the choices you had at the time. What else could you have done?

3. Why didn’t you do this? Looking back it is easy to think that you should have acted differently. In a traumatic situation, our minds do not work as they usually do. A traumatic event is normally sudden and unexpected. There is no time to mentally prepare for what is about to happen. It is common for a person to freeze, and not be able to act in a way they later wish they had. This is caused by the shock of the situation and is a natural response that no one can blame you for. You might have been taken over by a survival instinct and acted in a way aimed at saving your own life or minimising injury. Again this is a natural response.

4. If a friend told you they were having these guilty feelings, what would you say to them? Would you blame them for what happened?

 5. Create a ‘responsibility pie chart’ of EVERYTHING responsible for what happened. Look at:

1.  How much were other people or organisations responsible for what happened?
2.  To what extent was it a chance event?
3.  How much were  factors such as the weather or the situation to blame?
4. How much were you to blame?

Here’s Michael’s ‘responsibility pie chart’. Creating it made him realise that he wasn’t as responsible for what happened as he’d assumed he was.

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