If you have made it this far you have hopefully already read my blogs over the past 2 weeks regarding Core Beliefs and Unhelpful Thinking Patterns. Today we’re going to focus on a few different ways to challenge this negative unhelpful thinking. Some of this may look familiar if you read my blog “A New Year a New You.” In this blog I am going to give a few different ways to challenge this unhelpful thinking and let you decide which one(s) work best for you.

Unhelpful thinking patterns are very quick, automatic patterns of thinking that you have about yourself, others and life in general and they are often in line with your core beliefs. They are typically negative, judgmental, exaggerated, inflexible, rigid and very convincing. On top of that, they distort reality and contribute to feelings of depression, anger, stress, loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness, distrust, anxiety and fear. Other terms for thinking distortions are “Cognitive Distortions”, “Negative Thinking Patterns”, “Thought Distortions”, or “Automatic Thinking.”

Core beliefs are thinking patterns that we develop over time. We typically develop these beliefs through childhood and they become fairly fixed by late childhood or early adolescence. Our core beliefs direct how we judge our past actions and how we think about the future. Some core beliefs can be helpful, and some can be unhelpful.