Day 9 | Daily Dose of learning
This project is inspired by the ‘100-day project’, a challenge consisting of committing to doing an activity everyday for 100 days.
I have decided to write about one thing I learn everyday for the next 30 days. This can be a skill, a deep concept to elaborate on, or a mere life lesson that made me become aware of something I consider relevant.
The decision is based on the belief that “we are what we repeatedly do”, as Valentin Perez put it.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a psychological intervention process aimed at identifying the reasons for which we feel a certain way and figure out whether or not our feelings have to do with distorted automatic thoughts, which are very influential on our mental health.
A great thing about CBT is that it is a topic which has been widely studied and proven effective in many cases when it comes to improving mental well-being. What’s more, it can be learnt and practiced by oneself and all that is needed is pen and paper.
The book “The coddling of the American mind” briefly describes CBT and lays out the basic steps of the process. Below I report them as written in the book.
When you feel anxious, distressed, or whatever you are feeling, write down what you are feeling.
Write down your level of distress (score it on a scale of 1 to 100 for example)
Write down what happened and what your automatic thoughts were and when you felt the pang of negative feeling.
Look at the categories of distorted automatic thoughts below, and ask yourself: is this thought a cognitive distortion? Write down the cognitive distortions you notice.
Look at the evidence for and against your thought
Ask yourself what someone might say who disagreed with you. Is there any merit in that opinion?
Consider again what happened, and reevaluate the situation without the cognitive distortions.
Write down your new thoughts and feelings
Write down again, using the same scale as before, how anxious, depressed, or otherwise distressed you feel.