"Catching Your Thoughts--The First Step to Changing Your Thinking"
Recovery.
This is not just a "hope", but it is what "will happen". You will recover, and you will recover faster than you think.
Changing our automatic thinking is not as hard as we think! As we gain tools to do this, and as we practice them on a daily basis, we change. The core beliefs and automatic thoughts we have are not a death sentence. The brain is extremely plastic. It can be changed again and again. In fact, every time you breath out, that moment right before your inhale--your brain has a capacity to learn something new and create new passages.
Good News for Those With Borderline Personality Disorder
I heard a surprising good news from my therapist a few days ago. She told me that research shows that Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the most easiest mental illness to recover from--and better yet, most people recover from it within 10 years!
With this in mind, let us keep practicing with the tools we have.
Thinking Traps
There are some thinking mistakes that we make, and once we catch them we are able to change them.
People who have been abused growing up or who has PTSD whatever the cause, tend to fall into the thinking traps.
For example, we may say "I'm worthless" after giving a presentation or performance. Why? Because we didn't think we did well. As a person with PTSD I have a hard time telling what led me to feeling so "bad". The solution? Catching your automatic thoughts!
To learn more about automatic thoughts and how to beat them, click Challenge Negative Thinking.
Does This Sound Familiar?
A few days ago, I felt like the world is an extremely terrible place, and I felt like running away. I cried a river, and walked all the way to the beach where I went in the ice cold water and spent hours laying on the sand. My staffs had to call the police to look for me.
When they asked me what led me to feeling like this, I didn't know what to say. After our talk, I learned that I got triggered by the "abuse posters" in the police office while I was getting my license. It had triggered a feeling that I have felt in the past.
Another time, while I was in the psychosocial rehab house, I started crying another river, feeling incapable and stuck. The nurse talked to me, and she asked me what led to this feeling. She asked me to recall the chain of events: That morning, I made a phone call to an online education institution, and the person on the other line was talking sarcastically and disrespectfully. I hung up and started crying because I started feeling "incapable".
I had NO IDEA that the phone call was what led to this feeling.
She told me that this is a tendency to turn things inward--called internalizing, instead of leaving them outside, and saying, "he must be having a bad day."
Solution: How to Catch Your Automatic Thoughts
After reading this post, I guarantee that your brain is already subconsciously more capable of observing your own thoughts, as the idea has been brought into light.
Practice saying to yourself, "I'm thinking the thought ______ "
Meditation is an extremely effective practice that will increase your awareness of your thoughts.
Afterword
If you remember ONE THING out of this post, it would be the practice of "I'm thinking the thought ____ ". Go ahead, write it down on a piece of paper and put it up where you can see it everyday!
