In one of our previous posts, “Can We Control Our Thoughts?”, we examined if it is possible to stop or control our thoughts. Here, I give an example of how to challenge an automatic thought about controlling our thinking. I use the cognitive behavioral therapy techniques for challenging automatic thoughts. In her mind, Carol is…
“…There has been a machine installed in my head, and this machine has been continuously lining up thoughts, impressions, without a break. If I only had the control of this machine, if I only thought of the things I wanted, in the order I wanted them to be, who knows what I could have achieved….
Decades of research have shown that there is an area in the left-hemisphere of our brains that constantly makes up stories about anything and everything! The pioneer of the research, neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga and his colleagues call it “the interpreter”. They discovered the interpreter while they were working with patients so called “split-brain patients”. As…
Self-Generated Thought and the Wandering Mind “How should I start…? Maybe I should have a cup of coffee first. But before that, I need to run the washing machine. My white shirt needs to be clean for tomorrow morning…” Have you noticed?: When the mind is not busy focusing on an external task, it wanders…
A CBT session with a client who asked for our help for quitting smoking. We try to understand his desire to smoke when he feels bored, and uncomfortable.
1. Know What You Want to Change You might already know what needs to be changed or you just have a sense that something in your life has to change, but you do not know what it is. Gilbert Chesterton said “Sometimes the problem is not not being able to see the solution, but not being able…
Continuing our session with Claire. She is having images on her mind in which her house burns down, and these are followed by compulsive checking rituals. In the previous part, part 1, we tried to help her see that the image on her mind is a thought, not the reality. In this part, we are working…
Our session with Claire was supposed to start 15 mins ago. While wondering why she might have been late, I was sitting on my chair enjoying my cup of coffee as I heard a car engine stopped. She must have arrived. Less than a minute, she was there, standing at my office door. C: Hello,…
Cognitive distortions is a concept from cognitive behavioral therapy, which implies that we usually tend to think in some biased way. Normally, having cognitive distortions is neither a deficit nor a disorder, but it is just a by-product of how our brains work. Our brains are programmed in such a way that when it tries…
In this post, I will try to tell you about what automatic thoughts are and how to identify them. Sometimes, all of a sudden, we find ourselves feeling depressed, anxious, furious, guilty… However, we can’t tell why. If someone asks, we can’t answer. Our mind is blank: “I don’t know, I just don’t feel well today.”…