Opportunity to Write
What automatic thoughts do you think when you feel that
emotion you identified in Step 2? It is important to write them down
and memorize the list. To help you recognize your own unique set of
self-limiting thoughts, you may find the following examples helpful.Examples of limiting automatic thoughts
(your daily, unconscious mental rehearsal):
I’ll never get a new job.
No one ever listens to me.
He always makes me feel angry.
Everyone uses me.
I want to call it quits.
Today is a bad day for me, so why bother trying to change it.
It’s her fault that my life is this way.
I’m really not that smart.
I honestly can’t change. Maybe it would be better to start
another time.
I don’t feel like it.
My life sucks.
I hate my situation with ________.
I’ll never make a difference. I can’t.
________does not like me.
I have to work harder than most people.
It’s my genetics. I am just like my mother.Just as with habitual thoughts, habitual actions also make up your own
unique undesirable states of mind. You are influenced to behave in
memorized ways by the very emotion that has conditioned your body to be
your mind. This is who you are when you go unconscious. You start off