Good morning!
I’m glad you liked my Ode To Donkeys last night. ;) Oh my gosh that picture cracked me up so much!! I was dying laughing anytime I looked at it. I’m thinking new OSG Mascot??? She/he really does glow!
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Last week I dusted off a book that I hadn’t looked at for a while.
After taking a neuropsychology course in my second year of undergrad, I became completely captivated and smitten with mind-brain research and the mind-body connection. I saved up my pennies and bought this book for pleasure reading.
I remember a few of my friends teasing me for spending money on a book that looked like a textbook, but was not required for any of our classes. ;)
Well, in fact, The Owner’s Manual For The Brain was one of the best books I have ever purchased. It is full of wonderful research about the mind-brain connection.
It answers questions like:
- How does stress affect our health?
- What can I do to keep my brain young as I age?
- How does working the night shift affect my sleep-wake cycle?
- What are the best strategies for studying and memory recall?
- How do odors affect relaxation?
- How does exercise affect moods and cravings?
You can see why I bought this book, right?! I knew my peeps would get me. ;)
If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may have noticed that I buy strictly non-fiction books for my pleasure reading.
I wasn’t always this way as a child. Growing up, I loved reading books like the Choose Your Own Adventure series, The Babysitter’s Club, Anne of Green Gables, and Chronicles of Narnia. In my late teens, I became extremely interested in health and psychology and I found a passion in informative, research-based pleasure reading.
After dusting this book off, I got to work and started reading up on next workshop topic:
How To Beat Negative Thinking: Part 1
1. Negative –> Positive Lists
As I mentioned in a previous post, something I do every now and then is make a list in the morning writing down all of the negative thoughts that are in my mind. I cross out those thoughts and list a positive, counter thought beside it. For example:
Then at night time look at the list again. I find when I do this, often many of the things I was worrying about in the morning are no longer a concern. Before bed, make a new list of your negative thoughts and worries and cross them out by replacing them with a positive thought. You will also find that this helps you fall asleep faster as an added bonus.
2. Use the ABCDE model by Seligman
I first learned of the ABCDE model in one of my cognitive psychology courses. It is a very effective technique for banishing negative thinking patterns.
The ABCDE model works as follows:
A (adversity): Recognize when adversity hits.
B (beliefs): Be aware of what you believe about the adversity.
C (consequences): Be aware of the emotional and other consequences of your beliefs.
D (disputation): Counter it! Question whether your beliefs are the only explanation. For example, ask yourself: What is the evidence for my beliefs? What other possible explanations are there? Do I get any benefits from holding onto these beliefs?
E (energization): Be aware of the new consequences (feelings, behaviours, actions) that follow from a more optimistic explanation.
As an example, I will do the ABCDE method for the negative thoughts I was having about my half marathon race.
A = I didn’t run at all this week and as a result I am going to fail in my half marathon on Sunday.
B = I am not dedicated and disciplined enough to train for this race.
C = I might as well quit my race training and just go back to being an off and on runner. That way I won’t have to let myself down.
D = Wait a second here! I have been training really hard for the past 4 months. One week off running is not going to hurt me. In fact, it might make me even more rested for the big day. I am doing a very good thing by not over-training like I did in the past.
E = I will continue to listen to my body and honour what it is telling me. If it tells me to rest then I should consider why that is. It is likely that last week’s high mileage was a result of my tired legs this week. No big deal. Maybe next time, I can plan my training schedule so that I don’t have three major runs fall on 1 week.
The ABCDE method also helped me banish negative thoughts when I was in recovery from disordered eating. It was one of the first methods I tried, and I have been doing it on and off ever since.
Try it out! I promise you will feel better after doing your ABC’s (and D’s and E’s!).
3. Snap Yourself Back Into It!
You may have heard of the elastic band trick. This is especially helpful for ruminators. Ruminators are people who worry constantly and mull over how events could turn out horrible. You simply wear an elastic band around your wrist and whenever you start ruminating, simply snap the elastic band on your wrist. This easy trick gives a quick (and slightly painful!) reminder that your thoughts started to wander in a negative way.
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Reading Comfort Giveaway #2:
Would you like a chance at winning a beautiful bookmark and an elegant paper weight from Reading Comfort?
How to enter: Simply leave a comment below telling me one negative thought you have about something in your life and then counter it with one or more positive thoughts.
Contest closes Wednesday Sept. 30th at 2pm EST. Open to US and CAD residents.
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See you later for Part 2!
My negative thought is currently about my job that I dislike, however, I am going to be positive and try to come in smiling and doing my best to make the situation good for me.
I love this post. I just recently came across your blog and now I read it EVERYDAY!
I have negative feelings about pregnancy. My baby was born still in February and now I can’t shake the feeling that if we try again that I will also get this baby sick and he/she will die. If we don’t try again then I fear that my 3 year old daughter will hate me for making her an only child :/
Counter: If we do try again I could finally be happy again and most likely will have a healthy baby. If we don’t try again my daughter might love us even more because all of our love and attention will be on her :)
Love love love the rubber band idea. I’m such a worrier..and it isn’t helpful to just constantly have those thoughts running through my mind. Thanks for the idea on how to distract myself and move on.
I had some negative talk in my head during my triathlon this past weekend. As I was trying to ride up the super steep hills I just kept saying “oh sh*t oh sh*t oh sh*t” I caught myself doing it and realized it wasn’t positive or helpful. I started to chant “you can do it, you can do it” instead, and I looked at the woman in front of me on her bike and yelled out some encouragement to her, passing it on felt great!
Courtney
Adventures in Tri-ing
This is a person post to go with my month of positivity for October!! For a negative thought, sometimes I might, “omg, I’m not cut out to be an ICU nurse, everyone is so much smarter than me, I’m going to look like a fool in front of the team.” To counter this with a positive thought: No, I am an excellent nurse, I belong in the ICU and I love it. I am highly educated and intelligent and I WILL GET THROUGH THIS!
Sometimes I think, I really don’t know what to do with the rest of my life and feel down about it. But then I think, okay, you’re only 24, you’ve accomplished a lot so far and you should be very proud of yourself for that alone! Figuring out my whole life will come in time, I’m sure :O)
Thanks for a great post!
I previously thought that my body was fat, useless, and a disappointment. But now I see that my body is strong, capable, and a wonderful, useful tool!!
As a musician, I get discouraged often. If I don’t do well in a performance, it’s so easy to think of all of the wrong notes. Instead, I have been thinking of all of the right notes I made rather than focusing on the wrong ones….it certainly helps! I have many more right ones than wrong!
I’m totally bookmarking this post, by the way.
Let’s see…negative: going back to school is going to be so overwhelming and I’ll be so busy.
Positive: The sooner I start, the sooner I’ll get my Dietetics degree!
One of the most discouraging things as of late is the enormous amount of debt that I have when you combine a car loan, student loans, credit cards, but the REALLY positive thing is that I am recently engaged so I have a wonderful man that completely supports me and has similar financial goals and is ready to tackle this with me… TOGETHER.
I have this feeling that I didn’t prepare well enough for an assessment I am taking this afternoon, and that I am not going to do very well as a result. However, I know that deep down I have a good grasp of the material and I will ace the assessment!
AAAHHHHHHHHHHH the APA Manual!! *runs away* :-P
Right now my negative thought is always “i’ll never get this weight off for good”, but I like to counter that with “I have been loosing weight slowly and eventually the changes I have made will work!”.
Great post!
I can’t add one more class to my schedule because I’m not capable. I counter that with I have done it before, I am smart and can do it!!
I sometimes think I will never get a job when I graduate, but now I think how grateful I am to be getting a top-notch education and to love the field I’m studying.
This is fantastic, usable advice. Thank you so much, Angela!
It’s amazing how one little negative seed will explode into a whole series of catastrophic thoughts, without the individual even realizing it!
I think it’s so important to slow our thoughts down and break them into segments so we can see how they are progressing, and change them when they begin to get too negative and dramatic. It’s something I definitely need to practice doing, so this is a good reminder…
I’ve been under some stress lately with going to work and school and I’m going to do this over the next couple of nights to see if it helps to calm me down. Writing always helps me though, so I know it will at least do some good.
Thanks again!
Alex
I too am much more likely to buy non-fiction than fiction for fun. Occassionally I’ll buy a fiction book but I’m more likely to check those out of the library because I can use non-fiction over and over.
I’ve used the rubberband trick before. I used to be really negative and hurt myself physically. I was taught to use a rubberband when I thought like that and it did help. I’ve not done that in almost 7 years!
Right now I need to get the negative thoughts about my hip injury out of my head. I think I’m going to try the ABCDE method because I keep thinking the worst for my hip instead of looking at the benefits.
The book looks really great!! I’ll have to check it out!
I really like the day of the elastic band to prevent negative thinking. The book sounds fascinating–I think psychology is one of those subjects that anyone with even a slight intellectual spark finds interesting. Maybe I should invest in that textbook!
Hey Chicka!
So funny that you are blogging about this today. I’m going to be on a live chat tonight, talking about pretty much the same thing… How important mindset is to living a healthy life and achieving our fitness goals.
Come say hi if you have a chance – I’ll be on around 4:45 PST. My friend Val is launching her new DVD workout program, so that is the reason I’ll be on (as a guest). The website where the Ustream chat will be hosted is http://actionherobabesystem.com/
Hope to see you there!!
Sheila
This post, like all of your posts, is great! I have learned that negative thoughts are just a waste of time. My life is so much better and more productive when I don’t think about them; but of course Mr.Negative Monster creeps up every now and then. I am going to try to ABCDE method tonight. I am worried about my ankle not being healed enough for my first 10k race in 17 days (yikes!).