CHALLENGING YOUR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS: IS IT FACT OR OPINION?

Struggling with a constant barrage of negative thoughts about yourself, the world &/or others? Do you relate to lots of the thinking errors in my previous posts?

Once you’ve learnt to spot when these negative thoughts are happening, we need a tool to help you to challenge these thoughts to come up with an ALTERNATIVE VIEWPOINT. One that is FAIRER, more ACCURATE, more LOGICAL & more HELPFUL.

This is where we can ask ourselves – “Was that thought I just had fact or opinion”. Now your personal bias might step in to confirm it is true. We need to try and STAY OBJECTIVE in this process. PAUSE, take a deep breathe and wonder if a friend approached you for advice in the same situation with the same thoughts what would you tell them…?

Us therapist sometimes use the “THOUGHT TO COURT” analogy. Act as if this negative thought is up on the stands for trial. We then PLAY BOTH SIDES OF THE ARGUMENT. Just like in court, feelings & opinions won’t hold as much weight as fact. When we begin to ask ourselves “what makes me certain that this negative thought is true” we don’t tend to find much FACTUAL evidence to back it up.

Then we consider evidence that goes against this negative thought. Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself if you are struggling to come up with any counter-evidence:
- Are there any other ways/perspectives of looking at this situation?
- Will this thought matter in 1 years’ time?
- Is this thought helping me closer to my goals?
- If I wasn’t feeling this way, would I see things differently?
- What would other friends/family say about this thought?
- Do I believe this thought 100% all the time?
- If I believe the negative thought 60%, what does the other 40% say?

Once we’ve weighed up both sides we need to COME TO A CONCLUSION. Take the original negative thought and now re-word that statement to fit in line with the evidence gathered.