1. Identify the thought; It’s crucial to analyze the exact thought that one has. Some of these thoughts are recurrent and they tend to cause a lot of anxiety and distress. These thoughts could emanate from either a previous experience or past events.
2. Understand the impact of the thoughts; These are the consequences that are brought about by the beliefs that are generated by the irrational thought.
The thoughts tend to have a significant impact on the person’s emotional, physical, social, and psychological state.
3. Dispute the thoughts; This allows the individual to look intricately through the evidence present while experiencing the negative thoughts. What proof exists to show that it’s valid to feel and act the way you should.
4. Replace the thoughts; Once the individual investigates the evidence of their irrational thought, it improves the perspective and approach to their situation. Hence it allows them to replace the negative irrational thoughts with positive ones.
5. Reinforce positive thoughts; This can be achieved through constant engagement in activities that would help in fostering positive thoughts.
Some of these activities include; self-care routines, attending support groups, engaging in various hobbies, talk therapy, journaling and also community activities.
By Khalifa Khalid,
Psychologist,
Chiromo Hospital Group.
