A Thought Replacement Exercise – a CBT worksheet/handout

Changing your thinking with cognitive behavioral therapy..

A simple exercise to challenge your negative automatic thinking, and replace with healthy alternative thinking…..

Catch the negative thought: Keep a journal, taking notes of the actual thoughts you are thinking when you’re in a situation that upsets you and ends in self-limiting and self-sabotaging behaviour. Example: ‘It’s going to be awful, I’m going to embarrass myself…’- (and then avoiding an event).

Thought Stopping: As you notice yourself saying these negative automatic thoughts, you can stop them mid-stream by saying to yourself “STOP”. Saying it aloud, or silently in your head if you are with people. You might also wear a rubber band around your wrist, giving it a little twang each time you notice you are allowing negative thinking to take over your head in a never-ending loop. It will make you more aware of how often, and in what situation, you are having the negative thoughts.

Challenge the negative thought: Challenge the thoughts, examine them to see if they’re valid. ‘Where’s the evidence for this? Is there another way to look at it?’. Example: ‘Actually, that’s fortune telling, I don’t actually know what’s going to happen, all I can do is my best, maybe I’ll be a bit anxious, I can cope with that if it happens, and it might not happen, I was okay last week at that other event even though I tortured myself before it with this kind of thinking….’

Summary: reframe and replace: Note the negative thought – stop it in its tracks – examine it for evidence – and if you decide it is irrational and unhelpful, replace it with alternative healthy thinking.  Here is an example:

Negative Automatic Thoughts	Positive Thought Replacement
Nobody likes me	That’s not a true statement. My family like me, and I have my friend from work and my friend from school. And I got on well with many other people now that I think of it. Also, not everybody will adore and admire me in this life. I accept that. It’s the same for everybody. Also, if somebody does think little of you, you don’t have to agree with it …
It’s going to be awful, I’m going to embarrass myself…	Actually, that’s fortune telling, I don’t know what’s going to happen, all I can do is my best, maybe I’ll be a bit anxious, I can cope with that if it happens, and it might not happen, I was okay last week at that other …

Try it yourself!

Negative Automatic Thoughts

Positive Thought Replacement

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Click to download this as an MS Word worksheet. Changing your thinking