Challenging Negative Thoughts

Hello and welcome to my presentation about challenging negative thoughts.

So firstly we're going to start off with going through

the theory and the application of challenging negative thoughts.

Next we're going to move on to the exercise and

the evaluation of it.

Lastly we're gonna watch a short video about the law

of attraction and then we're going to wrap up from

there. Mhm.

Yeah. So what are negative thoughts and why exactly do

we have them?

So negative thinking, also known as cognitive distortion refers to

the pattern um of thinking negatively about yourself and your

surroundings. So although everyone experiences um negative thoughts now and

again, negative thinking can seriously affect the way you think

about yourself and your surroundings.

Um And it can really affect different parts of your

life such as your your work, your everything that you

do daily with your friends, your family and prolonged um

prolonged periods of negative thinking can uh is a symptom

of mental illness, mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders,

personality disorders and schizophrenia.

So why exactly do we have negative thoughts?

Um So there are various reasons for which people have

negative thoughts because there are many different types and some

examples are because of fear.

So, you know, as humans, we fear um the future

uh we're always anxious of what's going to happen in

the future.

We also fear what's happening right now, and um we

also fear that something in the past will come and

affect us in the future, so that can really affect

our negative thoughts.

We also have polarization.

So seeing the world as really black and white, either

or if something doesn't happen, then it's the end of

the world which can really produce lots of negative thoughts.

And then lastly, there's generalization.

So, coming to a generalization based on only a single

event, um this is the result of our schemas.

When something happens, we um have schemas that our mental

representations of something.

So we are we link um an event to a

specific feeling or thought in this case a negative thought.

Um and there are many more, such as japanese to

conclusions. Um so I want you to think about um

what type of what type of negative thought you are

most prone to.

Yeah, so now moving on to how exactly do we

challenge these negative thoughts?

Um So firstly I want to focus on um the

basis of negative thoughts.

So the basis of all negative of the theory of

challenging negative thoughts assumes that vulnerability to emotional disorders is

thought to lie in memory representation, such as negative self

schemas. Hence um challenging said thoughts are are mainly to

avoid said mental illnesses.

Yeah, so there are two ways of of looking at

how we challenge um negative thoughts.

So the first is from a psychologist psychiatrist, therapist point

of view.

And you know this links this topic of challenging negative

um thoughts.

Links to cognitive behavioral therapy in which um challenging of

negative thoughts is referred to as cognitive restructuring, our cognitive

reframing which you might remember from last week's presentation.

Um And I want you to maybe pause the video

now and maybe think of ways that um that were

mentioned last week of reframing and how they're used.

So the main way in which we can reframe um

such cognitive distortions and negative thoughts is through positive really

re labelling which is making the client aware of their

situation and finding a way in which they can address

this in a positive way.

Um So yeah negative thinking does have direct links to

um the nuancing skills reframing and uh yeah no not

all of us can afford to go um and see

someone to help us challenge our thoughts.

So there are ways in which we can actively challenge

our negative thoughts on on our own and the following.

There's five steps to do so.

So the first one being recognizing the thought loop.

Um so once you know what kind of negative thinking

you commonly engage in, you can start to recognize the

triggers that bring off these, you know, I thought loops

and stopping the negative thought before it comes is a

way in which we challenge these negative thoughts And then

we go on to step two which is asking yourself

the challenging questions.

So asking yourself questions such as why you feel the

way that you feel while you're thinking these thoughts.

Are these thoughts really factual?

And is there any evidence to back up these thoughts?

Step three is to distract yourself often.

When we get negative thoughts, they do come in clusters

and we feel like we only are having negative thoughts

and this can sometimes be too much to handle.

So you need to find a way um to calm

yourself down, be reading, you know going on a walk,

going and talking to friends, it can be anything to

each their own.

Um Step forward is to replace the negative thought with

a rational and positive one basically reframing um so we

placed negative thoughts and find some way in which you

can flip the thought into you know, a more positive

one. Okay.

An example of how I was taught to do this

by my mom is whenever me and my brothers would

fight, she would say no you have to rephrase but

you just said if we ever said anything negative, like

calling each other names would have to find a way

to, may have a positive twist on that, which I

think is very helpful.

Mhm. And lastly um practice gratitude.

Um So to sustain these positive rational thoughts, you can

do this through practicing gratitude.

And although this isn't always easy, uh we'll go into

more detail on the slide when we talk about the

law of attraction, so now we move on to the

challenging negative thoughts exercise.

Um You'll need a pen and paper for this or

you can even do on your phone or your laptop,

however you choose, you just um need to be able

to write it down.

So first of all I want you to Write down

three negative thoughts.

So for example I'll give an example um So you

can say my example is I'm all smart enough to

pass by a psychology because I never took biology in

high school.

So once you have those three um negative thoughts down,

I want you to ask yourself the following questions.

So is there evidence to support your thought?

What why do you think these thoughts basically?

Um Is a thought helpful, realistic?

And lastly how can you make this thought positive?

So following my example, is there evidence to support my

thought? Well yeah I never took biology in high school,

hence why I feel like I will fail it.

So is this helpful?

Definitely not because it doesn't encourage me to study um

which will obviously lead to me failing biology.

And is it a realistic thought?

In a way?

I guess so and how can I make it positive?

So I can spin it in a way in which

I say well although I didn't take um cycle uh

biology in high school.

Um I haven't failed any other exams and I have

no reason um to be you know apprehensive when it

comes to this example.

So once you've thought about these questions for each of

your three negative thoughts, I finally want you to write

down the alternative rational positive thought for each of them.

So now that this is done, I want you to

go and do the exercise evaluation on jan board.

You're going to have to answer the following questions.

So they are.

How was this experience for you?

Was it easy for you to come up with those

negative thoughts?

Or was it quite hard?

Um That might see a little bit about how frequent

you have negative thoughts?

Another question being, what can you take away from this

experience from this?

From doing this exercise?

And how could you see this exercise being helpful for

clients now moving on to the law of attraction?

Um This is obviously a very debated um science called,

it's called the pseudoscience um in which this this pseudo

science is based on the belief that positive or negative

thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.

So whatever you're thinking, you will attract those experiences, those

people into your life.

So the law of attraction is basically done through a

combination of different cognitive reframing techniques um with like affirmations

and this is where gratitude comes into play and practicing

being grateful every day and um creative visualizations to replace

limiting thoughts and negative thoughts that you may have.

This is a very controversial topic and not everyone will

believe in this, but um and some may even say

that it's a result of the placebo effect, but you

know, if you choose to believe in this and you

find out how old then why not?

So this is where I would like you to go

watch the short video that I sent um on on

WhatsApp um to kind of get more of a grasp

of what the law of attraction actually is and how

to use it.

Mhm. So to recap everything that was said in this

presentation, um negative thoughts can have a great impact on

our mental health and it is important to be aware

of them and to to you know, do something when

we are experiencing these negative thoughts.

Um but luckily there are many ways in which we

can practice challenging negative thoughts and as I said before,

it is also very helpful to use um in therapy

sessions. So, thank you, I hope you enjoyed this video

and that you can take away something from this video

um and that you learn how to challenge all every

negative thoughts that you might have.

Thank you.

Mhm.

Challenging Negative Thoughts

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