Tag: meditation
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Thanking Your Mind: An ACT Technique for Coping with Unhelpful Thoughts
As a clinical psychologist who practices CBT, I’m focused on helping therapy clients explore the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. I’ve written about some of these ideas and techniques in articles about automatic thoughts, distorted thinking, and how to use mindfulness and thought records to recognize and challenge unhelpful thoughts. In addition to…
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When Relaxing Is the Hardest Task of All
At the end of yoga class last week, as we were all transitioning to Savasana (also known as Corpse Pose, the part of class in which you lie down and allow yourself to rest and relax after a period of self-exertion) our teacher said to us: “Savasana is one of the hardest exercises we do…
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The #1 Tool for Challenging All or Nothing Thinking
With me it’s all er nuthin’Is it all er nuthin’ with you?It cain’t be “in between”It cain’t be “now and then”No half and half romance will do! – Lyrics by Richard Rodgers, from the musical Oklahoma! When I was in the sixth grade, my class staged a production of the musical Oklahoma! It’s amazing the…
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A Distorted Reality is NOT a Necessity to Be Free: How Cognitive Distortions Hold You Back
Sorry, Elliott Smith. I’ve been a huge fan of yours for ages, but in this post I’m going to talk about how our distorted thoughts make us anything but free. In last week’s post, I introduced the concept of automatic thoughts and explained the CBT principle that our thoughts lead to emotions, and emotions lead…