What if we could place our thoughts into jars and examine them? We might begin to realise how many of our thoughts are simply irrational. According to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the way we think (our cognitions) and act (our behaviour) influence how we feel. If we change the way we think or interpret the world around us, we can change how we feel. Our automatic thoughts are often based on assumption, not fact, and while they might seem believable, they are usually inaccurate.
For example, thinking that things must be a certain way, we should behave like this or, others ought to speak to us in a particular way can lead to negative feelings. We are not interpreting our world in a rational or balanced way. However, these thoughts occur automatically and influence our feelings without us realising. CBT provides patients with tools to address those automatic thoughts and think more accurately.
What Are the Benefits?
Thought records, a common CBT tool, are one way of unpacking our thought patterns, even the automatic patterns. Like, watching our thoughts float around in a jar and writing down our observations. This tool enables patients to engage in cognitive restructuring by identifying and changing their thought patterns. These records involve capturing and acknowledging our automatic thoughts before evaluating how realistic or rational they are. The end result is to come up with a balanced version of the initial thought.
By doing such an exercise, we become more mindful of our automatic thoughts and can identify why we feel the way we do. Although the end result is important, the process of completing a thought record encourages an internal and mindful awareness of how we are thinking and feeling, which is beneficial itself. It is important to note that thought records can address positive and negative automatic thoughts — sometimes, our positive thoughts can also be inaccurate.
How to Capture Thoughts
The most common thought record is the 3-column version, which encourages patients to write down the situation, their thoughts, and feelings. However, thought records have also been adapted to include challenging our thoughts and feelings. These additional columns include arguments for, arguments against, rational/alternative responses, and the outcome after completing the thought record. You can view a standard 7-column thought record here.
In order to capture automatic thoughts, it is key to pay attention to how you are feeling. If your feelings change suddenly, this is a situation to make a note of. It is best to make a note of the situation, your thoughts, and feelings as soon as possible or try to recall the situation as accurately as possible later on.
- Record the situation: This includes the date, time, who you were with and what happened prior to these feelings arising. This can be an important indicator of situations that cause discomfort and can highlight patterns later on.
- Note down your emotions and bodily sensations: It is best to write one word for the emotion and rate it out of 100% and jot down any physical sensations you felt, e.g. heart racing.
- Note down any thoughts or images: You might have verbal thoughts ‘she hates me’ or have visual thoughts and see images.
You can jot down what went through your mind, what you said to yourself, and what this implied to you. For example, picturing others staring at you might imply you felt you were embarrassing yourself.
Learning to Evaluate and Challenge Thoughts
Creating an inner awareness of the thoughts and feeling you experience in various situations is a beneficial first step. You might even feel lighter after acknowledging those thoughts and feelings outside of your mind. But, in order to engage in the cognitive restructuring of our automatic thoughts, we need to actually challenge those thoughts.
In CBT, thoughts can be challenged using Socratic questioning, which involves evaluating evidence for and against our thoughts using factual evidence. By working through one thought at a time, you can ask yourself:
- How strongly did you believe the thought to be true?
- Was this based on fact or feeling?
- Why might it be true? Be honest with yourself.
- Why might it be false?
Answering these questions is often the tricky part, so it can help to use these prompts when evaluating the evidence against a thought. How would I respond if a friend told me this? Was there ever an occasion where this thought proved to be true? What would I say to myself looking back at this 20 years from now?
Balance Your Perspective
After challenging your thoughts, it is now time to try to take a new perspective. How could you view the situation differently? You can note down more helpful ways of thinking about yourself or the situation. You might be judging yourself in ways that are harsh and unfair; this is a good stage to write that down and acknowledge it.
In situations that are difficult to manage or stressful, it can help to think about ways you can tackle the problem. This puts you in control of the situation instead of feeling out of control. Then, write out new thoughts and rate how strongly you believe the new thought and how strongly you feel the emotions you rated initially.
While thought records are often used in collaboration with a therapist (which is ideal if you struggle to challenge your own thoughts), thought records are also incredible self-help tools. It is important not to be a perfectionist when it comes to completing a thought record, be mindful but get things down quickly to avoid censoring how you are truly feeling.
Written by Amirah Khan
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