The average person thinks 60.000 to 80000 thoughts per day! Quite often our thoughts are irrational and inaccurate. Believing our irrational thoughts can lead to relationships problems and unhealthy decisions. Thinking errors are common amongst those who suffer anxiety and stress.

A thought affects your feelings and your bodily sensations which then combine to dictate your behavior. Your behavior then triggers the next thought you have which begins the cycle all over again. If the first thought is negative the entire cycle tends to lead to an even more negative thought.

For example. Thinking a thought like “It’s not fair that I have to suffer with such a problem” can mean that you start to feel anxious which in turn causes sweating and heart palpitations.
With a little practice you will become an expert at watching thoughts and not involving yourself with them. Your life changes when you think positive thoughts about yourself. By helping you recognize when you make thinking errors, they help you begin to question such thoughts and replace them with more balanced more positive thoughts.

The most common thinking errors can be divided into these 10 categories.
1.Overgeneralization: It is easy to take one negative event and generalize it to the rest of your life.
2. Mental Filter:
If twenty positive things happen and one negative you filter out the positive and think the negative. You focus exclusively on the most negative features of a situation filtering out all the positive aspects.
3.All-or-nothing thinking:
Sometimes you see things as being black or white. These types of thoughts are characterized by terms such as “every”, “always” or “never”.
4. Jumping to conclusions:
An individual who jump to conclusions will often make an interpretation or prediction even though there is no evidence to support their conclusion.
5. Emotional reasoning:
Our emotions are not always based on reality but we often assume that those feelings are rational. Emotional reasoners will consider their emotions about a situation as evidence rather than objectively looking at the facts. “I am angry with you therefore you must be in the wrong here” is an example of faulty emotional reasoning.
6.Catastrophization also referred to as Magnifying or Minimizing:
It is when you exaggerate the importance of negative events and minimize the importance of positive events. Sometimes we think things are worse than they are. It is very easy to get swept up into catastrophizing a situation once your thoughts become negative. When you begin catastrophizing remind yourself that there are many other potential outcomes.
7.Labeling:
Labeling involves putting a name to something. Instead of thinking, “ I made a mistake” you might label yourself as “a bad teacher”.
8.Fortune-telling:
None of us knows what will happen in the future. But sometimes we like to think things like “Once something strongly affects my life it always will”. But how do you know it will turn out this way? These thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies.
9.Personalization:
Sometimes, it is easy to personalize everything. “This student doesn’t like me”. When you catch yourself personalizing situations, take time to point out other possible factors that may be influencing the circumstances.
10.Unreal Ideal:
Making unfair comparisons about ourselves and other people can ruin our motivation. For instance, “It upsets me a lot when I make mistakes”.

Cognitive reframing technique is used in cognitive behavioral therapy and it refers to the mental act of changing the meaning or interpretation of self-sabotaging thoughts. For instance, “No one wants to talk to me”. You then challenge such thought with positive statement such as “I am going to smile and start a conversation with someone who looks friendly”. Reframing involves looking at the same situation from a new reference and finding some good aspect in it. Toxic thoughts are often based on wrong assumptions. They are not necessary facts.

Steps to Initiate Cognitive Reframing:
●Stop (breaking the cycle of escalating, negative thoughts).
●Breathe deeply (releasing tension).
●Reflect and identify the situation A-B-C model.
Can you identify any of the thinking errors described earlier?
Which one?
What is the evidence for this thought or belief?
Is there any evidence against it?
Is there another way of looking at this situation?
What would I advise my best friend if they were thinking this way?
●Clarify your values, automatic thoughts, dysfunctional beliefs, cognitive distortions, and expectations.
Gather objective supportive evidence
You may think that you cannot control the thoughts you have but with cognitive reframing and practice you can master your thought process and challenge your negative thoughts.

Humor as a coping technique
A great tool to initiate the process of cognitive reframing includes the use of humor which can have health-promoting properties. Finding humor in a stressful situation can help you to reframe perceptions of the event. Some hospital’s staff are using laughter libraries, humor rooms, comedy carts that can be wheeled into an individual’s hospital room and clowns to bring laughter and joy to the bedside.
Humor is a great coping technique! Klein states that the use of humor gives a sense of power in the midst of chaos. Humor (except of racial, sexist or ethnic humor) allows an intermission in the cognitive war against stressor and it can be used to diffuse both anger and anxiety. Frankl, the survivor of Auschwitz noted in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” that humor was a saving grace among fellow prisoners in the shadows of death. Frankl wrote: “Humor was the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.”

Calm breathing
When I feel stressed or anxious, I use the diaphragmatic breathing that helps me slow down my breathing. This is a great portable tool that I can use whenever I am feeling stressed. The purpose of calm breathing is not to avoid anxiety but just to help me “ride out” the feelings. Calm breathing technique involves taking smooth, slow and regular breaths:
1. Take a slow breath in through the nose, breathing into your lower belly for about 3–4 seconds.
2. Hold your breath for 1–2 seconds.
3. Exhale slowly through the mouth for about 4 seconds.
4. Wait a few seconds before taking another breath.

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Vassiliki xx