CBT and Cognitive Restructuring: What is it and how does it work?

As you may already know, cognitive restructuring, a key component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) refers to changing one’s thoughts on purpose.  Yes, you’ll want to be intentional about your thoughts as this is how you create your life and feel how you want to feel in it.  Allow me to explain.

CBT teaches the following: your thoughts shape your emotions; your emotions shape your actions and therefore your situations.  These are all interrelated and don’t necessarily follow that order.  However, one of the easiest ways to change cycles and patterns is by looking at your thoughts and how these are affecting your life.  That’s how multiple people can be in the same situation, yet experience these differently from each other.  Even the same person can have a similar situation as before, for example, but with a rather different set of thoughts about it the second time around, and thus, feel differently from the first time.  Different thoughts equal different emotions.

Imagine that you feel hungry and are eager to savor your favorite pizza.  You enter the pizza place and notice a group of people sitting together at a table; they look up at you, and simultaneously burst into laughter.  Initially, you think they are laughing at you and you feel embarrassed.  You think about the times you were teased or bullied at school and how powerless and alone you felt.  You feel scared. You wonder where you can hide now.  You think they are being mean and horrible for “making you their victim.”  You then feel angry.  You stop receiving your body’s hunger cues. Perhaps this affects you so much that you leave without buying let alone enjoying your pizza.  The rest of your day is completely ruined.

Now, imagine that we can rewind this story to its start again.  So you feel hungry and are eager to savor your favorite pizza.  You enter the pizza place and notice a group of people sitting together at a table; they look up at you and simultaneously burst into laughter.  You think they must have cracked a joke right when you were walking in and that it’s great for people to connect and laugh over a delicious meal.  At which point, your eagerness for that yummy pizza only increases.  Perhaps you even feel a sense of love and connection simply by witnessing what you thought was pleasant camaraderie.

I just guided you through the same scenario with 2 different outcomes resulting from 2 different sets of thoughts.  Even though different things such as your history can influence your thoughts, you can start by setting the intention that you want to feel better.  From that vantage point, you can notice how different thoughts affect your emotions.  A thought pattern is created after you continue to choose certain types of thoughts, which can greatly affect your mood.  Moods can in turn also develop patterns.

And although thought patterns and mood patterns don’t change overnight, you can shift these a thought at a time.

This is very empowering information because the more you know and apply this as you develop more intentional thinking, the more you can feel how you want to feel and live as you want to live.

At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, I tell you, “have fun with it.”  If you would like extra support and guidance with this process, please reach out to me (Nadeshda) or my partner (Amanda) or another professional.