Challenge Negatively Biased Thoughts
Now that we’ve identified our negatively biased thoughts, we’re going to choose a primary thought to challenge. This is the thought that we believed the MOST and will likely have the highest believability rating. If you have more than one thought at your highest believability rating, choose the one that you believe a teeny bit more or the one that hits you a little harder.
Let's Practice!
Go ahead and write down the Primary Biased Thought you’ll challenge in your notebook or text editor.
Now that we have our primary thought, we can challenge it! To do this, we’ll first identify which thinking traps we see in our primary negatively biased thought. Thinking traps are known thought patterns that lead to exaggerated, irrational, and unhelpful thoughts. The table below describes several that commonly pop up when we feel anxious:
Let's Practice!
Using the table above as a guide, write down the thinking traps you see in your primary biased thought. It’s common for thoughts to fall into more than one thinking trap, so feel free to select more than one!
As you start to notice your thinking traps, it may be helpful to keep track of which thinking traps you tend to fall for so that you can quickly check your thoughts based on your tendencies. For example, if you tend to catastrophize, the next time you’re in a code review, you can quickly ask yourself “hold on, am I catastrophizing again?” Take a moment to reflect on which thinking traps you tend to fall into in your notebook or text editor.
Alright, now let’s challenge that primary biased thought! To do this, we’re going to generate some evidence FOR and AGAINST the thought being true. (Why would we consider evidence FOR these thoughts? Well, sometimes our anxieties are created by things or people in our environment, and the resulting thoughts are actually realistic. That said, we’ll want to evaluate the evidence FOR extra carefully). This can be tough to do at first, so below are some guiding questions you might ask to help you generate evidence.
Am I 100% sure of this? Can I tell the future, or read minds?
What is the worst that could happen? Could I handle it?
Is there another explanation/ way of looking at this situation?
Am I placing unrealistic and unattainable standards on myself that I wouldn’t expect another person to achieve?
Am I overestimating the probability of this?
Am I blaming myself for a situation outside of my control?
Does ___ really mean that I am ___?
Imagine I had the thought “They regret hiring me because I’m so incompetent.” Here’s what my evidence might look like:
You’ll notice that there is still some evidence for the thought; that’s okay! The point of challenging your thought isn’t to be more positive or to ignore certain kinds of evidence. The point is to take a more balanced and self-compassionate point of view.
Let's Practice!
Go ahead and practice generating evidence for and against your primary biased thought in your notebook or text editor. Remember to use the guiding questions!
Guiding Questions
Am I 100% sure of this? Can I tell the future, or read minds?
What is the worst that could happen? Could I handle it?
Is there another explanation/ way of looking at this situation?
Am I placing unrealistic and unattainable standards on myself that I wouldn’t expect another person to achieve?
Am I overestimating the probability of this?
Am I blaming myself for a situation outside of my control?
Does ___ really mean that I am ___?
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