Challenging your thoughts!
Hey all!
Challenging your thoughts can be one of the most helpful and strongest tools to have in your coping skill/mental health toolbox!!
Challenging your thoughts is taking an irrational thought you may have/had, and rationalizing it and challenging whatever negative things it is saying!
For example, if I were to have the thought "I am not good enough" I would do my best to immediately recognize that that is an extreme and irrational thought. I would challenge it with other thoughts like "others tell me i am good enough / I do my best every day / my best is enough / I hold too high of expectations for myself / I need to be kind to myself"
Even if you don't believe it, that's okay! It can be hard to believe things like that when your brain has always been telling you negative things about yourself! You have to try to get into the rational part of you, the "what the heck that is not true" part of you!!
Another great way to help practice this is when you aren't even necessarily in a bad moment. If you're feeling neutral or good, you can take a journal and write down a negative thought you have had, and write down other thoughts to challenge it!
Make sure y'all are taking care of yourselves!!
QOTFT: What is one positive thing y'all will do for yourselves this week??
(question of the forum thread cx )
Thank you for the excellent reminder! Someone once wrote, "Hindsight is 20/20, but Foresight determines our direction". Its true that I can learn (and should) learn from History, but you are spot on when you say, "we will never reach our destination if we are constantly looking back over our shoulder." I am a Christian so for me, God is who I rely on to help me stay on the right path, "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:6). I truly appreciate you for sharing how you stay and get back to your path and for this awesome insight. This really helped me to say grounded today.
@AmethystUnicorn
One thing I am working on this week is self esteem. IT has been a rough week for me
@AmethystUnicorn I love this post! This is something that I suposup every person goes through and it is so important to realise that you are doing your best. One positive thing I'd do this week would be stop saying negative stuff that probably won't even happen
@listenerblack1995
I agree with you! Also, it's great that you're trying to push away those nasty negative thoughts ^-^ Thanks for reading I hope you're having a good day :3
Excellent perspective! I just need to stop and realize that most of my crazy negative thougths willl NEVER HAPPEN! It is literally a waste of my time to run all my "negative tapes" when I can just use my mental keyboard and hit CTL ALT DELETE! Mindfulness is teaching me that I can CONTROL my thought by accepting it for the moment and helps me remember to use the verse 2 Corinthians 10:5b," and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." ALTERNATIVE reminds me I have choices and can ALTER that negavitve thought and DELETE it! Thank you...your post comments helpend me see my negative thoughts for what they are and gave me a new way to address them going forward....CTL ALT DELETE!
@AmethystUnicorn for me, it would be "theres no reason why you shouldnt eat this, its yummy so treat yourself! You deserve it <3"
finding cognitive distortions is hard, but once youve found them, it gets so much easier to conquer them for good 
@AmethystUnicorn
What is one positive thing I will do for myself this week? Take time ti care for myself and to be in the best of health so i am able to be here to support and help members and Listener here at 7Cups. And to be treated as a humen and not be any thing less then that
Has anyone every had a house guest that won't leave? Ooh that burns me up!
I am getting stronger and better at challenging my negative thoughts. For me ti is a battle on all fronts; physical,mental, spiritual. But I am winning small victories one thought at a time.
An irrational thought I constantly have is that my friends don
One positive thing I'll do for myself this week? I think I'll start talking positive things into existence - things like "something good is going to happen this week." I'll only say things like that out loud and keep the negative things to myself. Negative things keep happening to me, like actual bad things, not minor inconveniences, so I'm gonna try to...I don't know...make good things happen.