Super Simple CBT

 

Title Super Simple CBT: 6 Skills to Improve Your Mood in Minutes

Authors Matthew McKay, Martha Davis, Patrick Fanning

Genre non fiction, self-help

Topics living better, self-improvment

Lenght 168p

Publish info February 1, 2022 by New Harbinger Publications

Rating ✵✵✵✵

"Persist."

“Persist. Don’t give up. Your ability to heal yourself by modifying your thoughts and feelings is a tremendous power. You can change what you think and therefore what you feel. You can change the structure of your life by altering the structure of your mind. You can take away your pain.”

At the very core of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is the truth that thoughts cause feelings, and we can control our thoughts thus controlling our feelings.

I've already come across this principle, although not so in depth and not with such a scientific approach – the author explains not only all the different ways we could think (often mixed together in individuals), which per se is already something, but all the way in which, a step at a time, we can change our way of thinking (which is tailored to us) and we can improve our lives.

The book closes this brief journey into our minds with two chapters for self-care: one about relaxation techniques, the other with worry control ones. The very last chapter is about how people prone to depression (or anyone, really) should approach the issues, scheduling activities so they re-descover the forgotten pleasure and gain hope again.

“Life is hard. To cope, all of us have been given a random set of tools and instructions by parents, family, friends, teachers, bosses, and others. Some of this has been helpful, some not. This book gives you tools from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that work. It is a guide for changing how you respond to your moods and your life. You may believe painful feelings are caused by forgotten childhood experiences. Maybe you assume the only way to relieve these feelings is through long, difficult analysis to root out unconscious memories and associations. There is some connection between your distant past and painful feelings in the present. But there is a much more immediate and accessible source of emotions: your current train of thought.”

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Automatic thoughts
2. Limited thinking
3. Hot Thoughts
4. Relaxation
5. Worry Control
6. Getting Mobilized
Conclusion