Today, we are not reciting a portion of the alphabet but sharing a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helpful exercise from a famous 20th century psychologist. In a previous podcast we talked about the racing mind and Top Down processing, a means to settle the mind and body. This podcast is an example of a Top Down processing exercise.
While we talked about worry in the previous podcasts, we have not shared much about how to specifically deal with an obsessive thought loop. So here is an exercise to make the worry evaporate. ABCDE is an oldie but goodie exercise from Albert Ellis. He came up with this exercise to help his clients learn how to use their minds to refute worries, and to help their bodies feel better quickly. This exercise is a means to keep the mind working for us rather than wasting energy in useless, fretting worries. As a means of teaching, we will include some typical worries as examples and use ABCDE to refute them.
Give this a try with your own stressful situations and worries. Let us know how you do!