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Can you really retrain your brain to think differently?
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Brain Power: http://healthwise-everythinghealth.blogspot.com
With the economic downturn causing increased undo stress and anxiety as well as the activities and stressors of daily living becoming more burdensome, an approach to compartmentalizing your life can do wonders for your mental health. Just as you organize your work life, daily schedule, kid’s daily schedule, your sock drawer, you should be able to organize your thoughts, emotions, stressors, anxiety and behaviors.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a common sense approach to dealing with stress and anxiety. It aims to influence dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure. The approach focuses on patterns of thinking that are maladaptive and the beliefs that underlie such thinking. It is almost like working out your brain, as you would the rest of your body when you go to the gym.
Studies of cognitive behavioral therapy have shown its usefulness for a wide variety of problems, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, sleep and psychotic disorders as well as for healthy individuals looking to improve their mental well-being. Cognitive behavioral therapy’s focus on thoughts and beliefs are applicable to a wide array of issues.
Individuals with chronic health conditions have benefited greatly from the approach as well as those dealing with acute or temporary issues. The approach helps an individual work through ineffective thought processes and behaviors and provide a step-by-step approach to retraining the mind. In this approach, an individual can work at their own pace to address their issues, taking anywhere from weeks to years, depending on the patient’s set goals and timelines.
In recent years, the approach has been embraced by both the mental health community as well as the general medical community, even demonstrating effectiveness in improving an individual’s overall immune system and general health. With our lives becoming overwhelming by the minute, cognitive behavioral therapy in a one on one counseling setting, group therapy or even on an individual basis can help you organize your brain and feel a sense of control in a very chaotic world. So, by compartmentalizing stress and anxiety, you can actually retrain your brain to think differently.
For more info: National Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapists (NACBT): http://www.nacbt.org/; National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Treatments_and_Supports&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7952
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