Healthy Thinking Techniques
Healthy thinking is a technique to help you cope with depression and anxiety
There is no solution that is universal, or perfect, but using healthy thinking is one commonly adopted practice. Healthy thinking requires you to first notice and stop your thoughts and then to ask about your thoughts. These resources from Kaiser Permanente can help you practice healthy thinking.
Healthy Thinking Practices
Notice and Stop your
Thoughts
The first step is to notice and stop your negative thoughts or "self-talk." Self-talk is what you think and believe about yourself and your experiences. It's like a running commentary in your head. They can be rational or irrational thoughts. See below for some irrational thoughts.
Ask About your
Thoughts
The next step is to ask yourself whether your thoughts are helpful or unhelpful. Look at what you're saying to yourself. Does the evidence support your negative thought? Some of your self-talk may be true. Or it may be partly true but exaggerated.
How Probable are these
Thoughts?
One of the best ways to see if you are worrying too much is to look at the odds. What are the odds, or chances, that the bad thing you are worried about will happen? If you have a review with a client that has one small criticism among many compliments, what are the odds that you really are in danger of losing the contract? The odds are probably low.
Healthy thinking is a tool that can be used when working through a range of mental health conditions.
Some things to keep in mind:
Negative thoughts can increase your worry or fear.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is a type of therapy that can help you replace negative thoughts with accurate, encouraging ones.
Changing your thinking will take some time. You need to practice healthy thinking every day. After a while, healthy thinking will come naturally to you.
Healthy thinking may not be enough to help some people who have worry and anxiety.
“One of the most powerful frameworks I’ve encountered is The Work by Byron Katie. This four-question framework enables you to turn around your negative thinking. A lot of this framework is based on the idea that our suffering comes from being in resistance to reality or believing our thoughts in spite of lots of evidence that our thoughts are always true.
You can learn more by watching this video.”
- Avary Kent, Chief People Officer Spring Activator
Recognizing Harmful Thinking Patterns
When you want to use healthy thinking to help keep depression at bay, it is important to recognize harmful thinking patterns when they show up.
Focusing on the Negative
This is sometimes called filtering. You filter out the good and focus only on the bad.
Should
People sometimes have set ideas about how they "should" act. If you hear yourself saying that you or other people "should," "ought to," or "have to" do something, then you might be setting yourself up to feel bad.
Overgeneralizing
This is taking one example and saying it's true for everything. Look for words such as "never" and "always."
All or Nothing Thinking
This is also called black-or-white thinking where you assume the result is either one extreme or another
Catastrophic Thinking
This is assuming that the worst will happen. This type of irrational thinking often includes "what if" questions.
Hero’s Burden
When you feel that you must be the hero and save the day. This type of thinking encourages us to believe that we have to solve problems alone or are ultimately responsible even when we have little to no control over the outcome.