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Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

NikNikSenior Contributor03 Mar 2016, 3:52 pm AEDT

Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

How does the way we think influence the way we feel?

With Brain Awareness Week coming up from 14-20 March, we decided to investigate what goes on in our minds, which we may or may not be aware of, and how this can contribute to mental illness.

Join us on Tuesday, 15 March at 7pm AEDT to be part of the conversation!

4 things you can do now:

1. Register as a member of the forums, which enables you to participate in the session

2. Hit the like button below to receive an email reminder on the night

3. Check out a blog about how our thinking patterns can maintain our distress

4. Leave a question below, if you can't make it tonight

103 replies

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In response to: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Polly48Senior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:34 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Personalization is my problem and jumping to wrong conclusion and firing up to fast

In response to: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Shaz51Senior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:35 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

You can think of negative automatic thoughts like a habit – so automatic that you don’t even notice you are doing it.-- this is so true @Shimmer

In response to: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Drac0Senior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:35 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

@Shimmer, my perception of my feelings & emotions have changed a lot over recent years, But being able to recognise these types of thinking AFTER the fact doesn't seem helpful?

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

ShimmerSenior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:40 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Good point @Drac0.

It does start off as recognising our thinking patterns after the fact, but what we are ultimately trying to do is develop new thinking habits.

The first step is to become aware of them. Once you are aware of them, there are a couple of different ways to manage them. One is to challenge them. The other is to use mindfulness techniques to acknowledge them and let them pass without getting hooked and affected by them.

Over time, we can practice challenging or acknowledging unhelpful thoughts, and replacing them with more helpful ways of thinking. Eventually this becomes more automatic, and replaces the old way of thinking. Does that make sense?

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

CherryBombSenior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:41 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Ahhh the clarity of hindsight.

But from what @Shimmer is saying it is possible to act with foresight.

In response to: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Shaz51Senior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:41 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Hi @Shimmer

Feeling of letting others down , losing work ,

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

ShimmerSenior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:42 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

It's great that you recognise that personalisation and jumping to conclusions are thinking styles that sometimes affect you @Polly48 - as I said above, recognising the thoughts is the first step to changing them!

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Polly48Senior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:43 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Yes being aware is the start trying to change process of thinking is really difficult for me.

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

ShimmerSenior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:45 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

Thanks @Shaz51 for those examples. So the model could look like this:

A) The situation = wanting to say no to someone (be assertive)

B) The thoughts = "If I say no I will let others down" "If I say no I might lose work"

C) The consequences: emotional = fear, frustration? behavioural = not being assertive

Those reactions make sense to me - does it make sense to others?

Out of the 2 thoughts there, can you recognise any of the unhelpful thinking styles?

In response to: Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

JacquesSenior Contributor15 Mar 2016, 7:45 pm AEDT

Re: Topic Tuesday // Tues, 15 March, 7pm AEDT // Managing and changing your thoughts

A good book on brain patterns and how to change them and how they work is written by a man named Norman Doidge, called the brain that changes its self, it talks about neuro plasticity, and how the brain is elastic and you can change your thought patterns through routine.

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