The first of a seven series articles describing what CBT means, and how practical it is in real life. The teachings will show you how to tackle emotions, and live out your life as positively as possible.
Many psychological problems that affect your daily life can be soothed or even remediated using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. CBT teachings are comprehensive, and use a wide array of emotions to break down psychological problems, and to work out a solution.
Although theory is involved, in order to fully grasp the teachings associated with CBT, you will need to do daily exercises to reinforce the lessons.
Our site will offer weekly exercises, which you can use to keep on track with your progress. One of the hardest things to do when feeling anxious is calming down to fully understand your emotions. You have to be able to understand your feelings, and think of a solution, which is easier said than done. If you want to improve your life, CBT offers a means to do so.
The CBT principles, and strategies will help you stay healthy, which when used in conjunction with professional psychotherapeutic help can lead to a positive life.
No matter how small the issue, if it bothers you on a daily basis, CBT offers an avenue to help you understand it.
If you have heard of CBT but haven’t given it much thought, then this is a good time to start reading about it and apply it to your life. If you don’t need CBT, but know someone that could benefit from it, then we encourage you to share this article with them.
CBT can help with depression, or it can help alleviate your anxiety. However, sometimes CBT by itself is not enough to help you, at that point seeking professional therapy might help you further. For some people, CBT may seem like straightforward, common sense teachings, which is true. However, some people have a hard time differentiating from common sense, and reality.
CBT is extensively researched, and is continually researched to this day. For some, it helps more than others, because it can be even more effective than medication.
On May 2nd, we will be discussing emotions with respect to CBT, and how they can contribute to anxiety, and depression. See you guys then.
Emotions
Find out what emotions have to do with CBT teachings, and learn what it takes to step back and problem solve your feelings.
It goes without saying that everyone has emotions, which is an expression of their environmental conditions and experiences. Emotions are hard to control sometimes, especially so when you are experiencing anxiety, but control over one’s emotions is not a task shrouded in impossibility.
In truth, it is all about channeling your inner emotions to something positive, instead of a spiral of negative self talk influencing negative thoughts. Again, easier said than done, but it takes practice. Usually, focusing on negative emotions tends to increase anxiety. Letting those negative thoughts fester in your mind will certainly not help with your self-growth.
Most of the time, depression stemming from anxiety can affect your mood the whole day, if not kept in check. It is important to let anxiety pass by without tempting depression.
If you think positively, you will most certainly find yourself relishing in your self-growth, and a reduction in your anxiety overall. It starts with breaking down your mood, and your current emotions:
- Anger: Earmarked by aggression towards others, annoyance at every small little thing, ill temperedness, and a state of disconcertment.
- Anxiousness: This is often a sign of being agitated, and apprehensiveness, bothered by small things; and anywhere from minor to overwhelming concern towards a specific situation.
- Shame: Often a sign of feeling belittled, debased, marginalized, or your feeling disgraced, with respect to your actions, character or environment.
- Disappointment: This feeling can be broken down into constituent forms such as feelings of dejection, discouraged, and dismayed.
- Disgust: Feeling appalled, and disturbed in response to external stimuli from your environment, or it can be directed internally towards your own actions or character.
- Embarrassment: Often feelings of awkwardness, diminished, and insecurity fuel and funnel into your embarrassment
- Envy: When you feel malevolent and malicious with respect to another person’s possessions in comparison with your own.
- Guilt: Which is categorized as a feeling of remorse, regret, and feelings of blame towards your part in an undesirable event.
- Hurt: Which often manifests itself when you are aggrieved, and broken hearted about something.
- Jealousy: When you are bitter, or desirous towards stimuli beyond your control, it could be about a relationship, or possessions, these feelings of jealousy often encourage feelings of distrust, and doubt.
- Love: Admiration, or adoration, and affection towards someone is often the manifestation of love.
- Sadness: when you feel uneasy, and distraught about an event it often involves feelings of sadness which then alter not only your mental state but also your physical, and cna leave you feeling depleted.
The plethora of emotions that exist and could work in conjunction to affect your mood and self-talk is why it is important to understand your healthy vs. unhealthy emotions. The first step in allowing yourself to improve
| Unhealthy Emotion | Example | Healthy Emotion | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anxiety | Has extreme attitude | Concern | Doesn’t see the issue as threat |
| Depression | Neglects self and the living environment | Sadness | You can still help yourself |
| Anger | Self -righteous, and does not see anything wrong with their behavior | Annoyance | May consider that the person did not act deliberately |
| Shame | Overestimates longevity of disapproval | Regret | Is realistic with disapproval from others |
| Hurt | Looks for evidence of the other person not caring | Disappointed | Looks for evidence as the person does care, and is indifferent. |
| Jealousy | Seeks out threats to a relationship or what one does not possess, over-compares | Concern for relation | Allows partners to express love without needing excessive assurance |
| Unhealthy envy | Focus on how to get desired possession without regard for consequence | Healthy envy | Is fair about the person who has the possession |
| Guilt | Looks for evidence of others blaming one for sin | Remorse | Does not look for evidence of punishment or retribution |
| Disgust | Person sees further toxicity or offense where none exists | Distaste | Does not see further toxicity or offense |
The next day we will go over reality and how it shapes our daily lives, especially when one is anxious.
Reality
Reality is hard to grasp, especially when you are feeling anxious. It is hard indeed to grasp reality, but not impossible, so set back and relax. This article will go over all of the steps you can take to calm an anxious mind so that you can focus on your current situation.
Fear
Do not let fear take over your life, so let us digest some words, and do a few exercises together so we can get rid of fear, and yield positive results.
Anxiety
Anxiety, the one thing that can be scarier then fear itself. It is something that can make make or break someone, if not kept in check. You have to learn techniques that can help you alleviate anxiety so you go back to living your life positively influenced.
Obsession
If you need obsession, learn as much as you want about anxiety. Easier said than done, but it is true. Otherwise, you cannot obsess over negatively influence things. Otherwise, it will take over your life.
Depression
Depression, this topic will tie the rest of the CBT topics, but it will go in details on how they tie together. This is the last topic about CBT we will discuss in May.
We hope this blog post has shed light on the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in promoting mental well-being. We would love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or any questions you may have regarding CBT. Please feel free to share your comments below. If you found this information valuable, we encourage you to share it with others who may benefit from it. For more informative content on mental health and well-being, be sure to follow us on naikwestcorp.com. Together, let’s continue the conversation and empower ourselves with effective therapeutic approaches like CBT.