The Complete Guide to Cognitive Restructuring

• It helps us get organized mentally
• It forces us to slow down
• It helps us be more aware
• It gives us a sense of agency and control
• It helps us think more clearly and rationally
• It helps us reflect instead of reacting
• It breaks bad mental habits

The benefits of Cognitive Restructuring are many and diverse:

• Manage worry and anxiety better
• Break out of rumination and depression spirals
• More effective stress relief
• Avoid procrastination and be more productive
• Improve communication and relationships
• Increased optimism and outlook
• Help with addiction and sobriety issues
• Build assertiveness and self-confidence
• Cultivate empathy and self-compassion
• Gain increased self-awareness and personal insight

A Thought Record simply a guide for walking you through the specific elements and steps of Cognitive Restructuring.

This "template" is composed of 6 steps:

1. Pause: What happened here?
2. Trigger: Who, What, When, Where, Why?
3. Thoughts: What thoughts were running through my mind immediately after the trigger?
4. Emotions: What emotions am I feeling right now? On a scale from 1 to 10, how intense are they?
5. Alternative thoughts: What are some alternative-ideally, mode realistic-ways of interpreting what happened?
6. Re-rate emotions: How intense are my emotions now?

Cognitive Distortions are unrealistic, exaggerated, and generally inaccurate forms of self-talk.

These habitual inaccuracies or distortions in the way we think tend to create distortions in how we feel.

• Mind reading: assuming we understand what other people are thinking without any evidence.
• Overgeneralization: extending the evidence for something beyond what is appropriate.
• Magnification: taking our errors and exaggerating them.
• Emotional reasoning: making decisions based on our feelings.
• Black & white thinking: evaluating things in terms of extreme categories.
• Labeling: describing ourselves in one extreme way, usually negative.
• Should statements: self-talking about what we should and should not do.