2019-03-12 How to Break the &quo

I'm reading the "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Made Simple" as I mentioned a few weeks ago. Actually, I'm reading quite a few other books at the same time period, if not the same time.

There are so many good books. Sometimes I got overwhelmed.

I received E book recommendations daily from Bookbub and Amazon.com. The prices of these recommended books are usually $2.99 or less. I have to restrain myself the urge to buy new books too often. But when I saw a really good one, I would get it.

OK, back to the above book. I'm on Chapter 8 right now. But I would like to talk about Chapter 4, "Identify and break negative thought patterns". So what are these Automatic Negative Thoughts?

In our life, we often encounter disappointments or distress situation. Then our brain would interpret a single disappointment to a whole lot worse consequences. The negative thoughts would come to us with no effort at all. It's like our brain would have minds of their own.

Thoughts have incredible power. They could cause us unnecessary pain. They can also help us heal if we can "harness" them to work in our favor. The author then described how to identify the automatic negative thoughts, recording these thoughts, and how to break the negative thought patterns.

What's nice about this book is, the author provides "homework" forms and other study material that can be downloaded from his website at the end of each chapter so that the readers can practice.

I'm even thinking about getting a paperback copy of the same book later so that I can reread and make some hand writing notes on it.