Conceptual Shift Therapy

Counseling intention: To dismantle damaging thought patterns about yourself using Conceptual Shift Therapy.

Description: List all of your thoughts that link to negative emotions

To start Conceptual Shift Therapy:

1. Collapse your thoughts into a single main, negative core theme or belief.

2. List each situation (present and past) that link to your core belief or theme.

3. Create a list of alternatives. Create a list of positive beliefs for each negative view or thought.

4. Summarize the positive believes, creating one core theme.

5. Ask your therapist to help you interpret the present and past situations in terms of a new perspective. Scrutinize each thought, and situation. Ask your therapist to help you demonstrate how you misinterpret the situations.

6. Practice reviewing other situations. Reinterpret the situations in terms of the new themes.

Practice Conceptual Shift Therapy

Someone once said, "Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day."

Every one of us has bad days even if we are positive people. Every day we let someone down. That is a part of life we can't escape. When we let someone down, we can apologize and move on.

Sometimes when we lose sleep or feel anxious, we let down people we love. To sort through the problem we can get to the root. If you snap at someone you love, or offend someone, just be mature enough to apologize and move on. Acknowledging you made a mistake is a mature and responsible thing to do.

Be real. Don't fake being happy all the time, because no human truly can be. If you feel like crying or expressing other emotions you are entitled to do so providing you are not harming anyone. Stop worrying about bringing others down, because you will do this anyway if you think negatively. Learn how to speak your mind appropriately when you need to.

One of the best ways to change negative tendencies using Conceptual Shift Therapy is to change how you think. Talk about what bothers you with a professional or with someone you can trust. Instead of dwelling on the bad, or what went wrong, learn to acknowledge your feelings and to find a solution to get you out of the bad mood. THINK. Take responsibility by telling the truth. The truth sets us free.

When you feel bad, change the storyline you have created. Some people cling to stories they write in their head to justify their behaviors and thoughts, and then retell them repeatedly to others hoping they will feel sorry for them. Close that old book and create a new story, particularlt a story that does not leave you helpless and a victim. This way you can move on. Learn to understand instead of spending your entire time saying, "others don't understand." The fact is that people see more than you realize and understand better than you think.

Even if someone or something causes your bad mood, you are responsible for managing your emotions. It's not easy to do if you are refusing to see someone else's point of view. If you believe someone meant to hurt your feelings or the world is against you, that your friend spends more time with someone else than with you, or your boss promoted someone else because they are better, you are fueling negative thoughts that are probably already exaggerated or untrue. Think… who in the world has time to focus on a single person to use them as their plaything to upset them? The world doesn't even know you. Your boss may have promoted someone else simply because they were better at the job, it does not mean they are better than you are. Change your perspectives and how you see things and you will find that you are not the center of attention, you are not a target for others, and you are not someone who is the only person in the world having a bad day.

Uplift yourself by defusing negative emotions and by replacing negative feelings with positive ones, because if you don't, you will just make others feel blue too. Watch funny shows, or view funny videos on YouTube to cheer yourself up. Most people don't want to spend any time with those who are bent on staying negative and not solving their problems simply because life is too hard for them. Start smiling more and people will smile with you and warm up to you.

Summary

This previous article should have taught you Conceptual Shift Therapy - how to analyze your negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. If you did not achieve that, head on back to the start and begin the process again. Continue until you master it.

Now it is time to learn some Progressive Muscle Relaxation.

Help is available online - use the links below to learn more or to take a test.