Zimbab Winston - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Rewire Your Brain and Become Less Anxious

WhatIs CognitiveBehavioral Therapy?

Cognitive behavioraltherapy (CBT) is a form of psychiatric therapy that focuses oncustomizing inefficient emotions, habits, and thoughts byinterrogating and uprooting negative or illogical beliefs.Considereda "solutions-oriented" form of talk treatment, CBT rests onthe idea that ideas and understandings impact conduct. Feelingdistressed, sometimes, could misshape somebody's perception ofreality. CBT aims to identify harmful ideas, assess whether theyarea precise representation of real life, and, if they're not, utilizemethods to challenge and overcome them.

CBT was founded bypsychiatrist Aaron Beck in the 1960s, following his disappointmentwith Freudian psychoanalysis, and a wish to explore more empiricalways of therapy. CBT also has roots in Rational Emotive BehavioralTherapy (REBT), the brainchild of psychologist Albert Ellis.

CBT is proper forpeople of all ages, including children, teenagers, and adults.Proofhas installed that CBT can attend to numerous conditions, such assignificant depressive disorder, anxiety conditions, trauma, eatingdisorders, obsessive-compulsive conditions, and many others. CBT isapreferred technique of treatment amongst professionals andinsuranceproviders alike as it can be effective in a brief time period,generally 5 to 20 sessions, though there's no set timeframe.Researchsuggests that CBT can be provided efficiently online, in additiontoface-to-face therapy sessions.

How Does CBT Work?

CBT focuses onpresent situation and feelings in real time, rather than youthevents. A clinician who practices CBT will probably as about familyhistory to get a better sense of the entire individual, but won'tspend inordinate time on past events. The focus is on what anindividual is telling themselves that might lead to anxiety ordisruption. An individual is then motivated to deal with reasonableconcerns virtually, and to challenge irrational beliefs, ruminationor catastrophizing. For instance, a person who is upset about beingsingle would be encouraged to take real measures but also questionany unnecessary negativity or unwarranted premise ("I will bealone forever and ever") that they attach to this contemporaryfact.

I began using theterm "prettiness and self-confidence" after a journalistasked me to specify the psychological difference between beauty andbeauty.

She asked, "Whydo some people feel appealing even if they do not have model-likefunctions, although as others-- like some sexy fashion models,onscreen actresses and others who are well-known for theirprettiness-- don't necessarily feel this way?" I said to thejournalist physical functions are only a part of what makes anindividual attractive, and her question was more about anindividual's "beauty self-confidence."

You, too, may findthis term useful in thinking of how you feel about your appearance.You see, attractiveness is more complex than meets the eye, aproblemI have written about in former posts here. It is valuable torememberthat beauty is both a physical and psychological experience. It'sbased upon three qualities:

How we actually look(genetics).

How we look afterourselves (health and grooming).

How we feel abouthow we look (positive self-regard).

The combination ofthese qualities is what I call "prettiness self-confidence."Having one of them (good genes, for instance) without the others(good grooming or positive self-regard) can cause a failure to feelappealing no matter how one appears to others.

This part of thebook is about ways to enhance "beauty self-esteem" usingcognitive behavioral methods. Bear in mind that I'm not an appealexpert in the standard sense-- that is, I am not a style or styleauthority-- and these aren't attractiveness tricks that assure tochange your life. I, like lots of you, am sick of hearing those"how-to" ideas in commercials, publications, realityprograms, books and blog sites-- have you Googled "beauty"lately? We have become so accustomed to being told what we reallyneed to fix that we forget that the entire concept of repairingactually detracts from feeling appealing.

Instead, as apsychologist, I actually believe feeling better about ourselvesrequires internal work, and this applies to our appearance, too. Ihelp other people identify their thoughts and feelings about theirself-image and find sensible ways to improve them. To achieve thatgoal, we need to understand the cognitive-behavioral patterns wehaveabout prettiness, learn how to modify them and after that use newones to support our prettiness self-confidence.

Below are threecognitive behavior therapy (CBT) techniques applied to theexperienceof attractiveness, starting with typical beliefs others have aboutprettiness, followed by a behavioral strategy that can be practicedto achieve change and ending with a cognitive shift that enhancesbeauty self-esteem.

Exercise One.

Cognitive Belief:People tend to really believe that beauty is based upon a realitycreated by others. The truth is that you can learn how to defineyourself-image based upon your own requirements rather than the realitycreated by your culture.

Behavior Pattern:Jot down three physical features and 3 aspects of your characterthatyou like the most. If you have a difficult time thinking of any,trythinking of the features you are least critical of. For example, itcould be, "I work very hard, I like my eyes, I'm truthful, I'm adevoted good friend, I'm a really good athlete and I have thickhair." Now put your list in order of importance andsophisticated by writing one sentence about each element on yourlist.