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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Dummies Cheat Sheet
By: Rhena Branch and Rob Willson
Updated: 08-12-2021
From The Book: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies, 3rd Edition
•
In This Article
• Introduction
• Defeating depression
• Fast-tracking your way from fear to freedom
• Maintaining optimum health with CBT
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you understand how the way you
think about yourself and situations in your life impacts your emotions and
actions.
Learning to form different and more productive perspectives on life can help
you feel and act in self-enhancing ways. This commonly involves pushing
through anxiety or low mood, challenging negative thoughts, establishing and
pursuing viable goals, and looking after your physical self along the way.
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Defeating depression
You can help yourself out of depression by practicing some well-researched CBT
strategies. Try these simple techniques and take the first steps toward making
depression a thing of the past:
• Take a compassionate and self-accepting mindset to reduce any shame or guilt
you may feel.
• Reduce negative rumination by focusing your attention on the external
environment and the here and now.
• Recognize your negative thoughts as symptoms of depression, not facts.
• Gradually reintroduce rewarding, value-based pursuits into your life by
scheduling your activities in a manageable way.
Fast-tracking your way from fear to freedom
Facing your fears can leave you experiencing not only relief but also a
surprising amount of freedom. With the following steps, you can begin to
confront your fears and increase your belief in your ability to overcome them:
1. Make a hierarchy of the situations you fear.
Start with your least dreaded situation and progress to your most dreaded
situation.
2. Make a list of your safety behaviors — things you do that you think keep you
safe but really keep you stuck in fear.
3. Work your way up the hierarchy, dropping your safety behaviors and remaining
in the situation.
4. Stay in the situation until your anxiety decreases by at least half without your
doing anything to try to control it.
5. Repeat your exposure to your fearful situation over and over again until your
fear lessens.
6. Record your results.
Maintaining optimum health with CBT
Making some easy lifestyle changes can help you to keep your health at its
best. Here’s a short list of simple tips and suggestions that can help you reach
and keep up optimum health. Take a look and give them a try.
• Eat well and eat regularly. Avoid fast foods and junk foods with high salt,
sugar, and fat content. Feed your body with wholesome stuff. Make an effort to
cook or learn to cook; a dinner as simple as baked chicken and steamed frozen
vegetables can be a great low-effort and healthy meal.
• Get lots of exercise. Find sports that you enjoy and join a gym or sports
group. Do enough to work up a sweat. Exercise releases a lot of feel-good
chemicals called endorphins into your system.
• Establish a good sleep pattern. Develop a bedtime routine that gets your
body into sleep mode. Try to get up at around the same time each day so that
your bedtime also becomes consistent.
• Strike a work/life balance. Be sure to make time in your schedule for leisure
activities.
• Pursue interests. Get yourself absorbed in activities that you enjoy and find
rewarding.
• Look after your living environment. Make your home a place you like to
spend time in; maybe do some essential DIY or redecorate.
• Relish your relationships. Spend time with people and socialize on a regular
basis. Pay attention to the significant others in your life. If your social circle is
limited, make an effort to join clubs and meet new people.
• Hold a self-accepting attitude. Give yourself permission to be humanly
imperfect and expect the same from others. Turn down your perfectionist
tendencies or unrelenting standards.
• Aim high. Set yourself goals to overcome any emotional disturbance or for
personal development. Many people find that they’re happiest when they’re
working toward a goal that reflects their values.
• Have a laugh. Humor really can be the best medicine. Try not to take an
overly serious view of yourself and life: Find the funny side in everyday
situations.
About This Article
This article is from the book:
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies, 3rd Edition
About the book authors:
This article can be found in the category:
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
This article is part of the collection(s):
• For Those Seeking Peace of Mind
Fonte (Acessado em 05/01/2022):
https://www.dummies.com/article/body-mind-spirit/emotional-health-psychology/psychology/
cognitive-behavioral-therapy/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-for-dummies-cheat-sheet-266245
