Practice Helpful Thinking

In the previous activities involving self-defeating thoughts, you learned a lot about what makes a thought self-defeating and what makes a thought helpful. You learned to convert self-defeating thoughts into realistic, helpful, and reassuring thoughts. In this activity, you will learn to make helpful thinking part of your daily life.

Here are some examples of helpful thoughts:

I can manage my life.
I have friends I can call if I need someone to lean on.
My life has changed, but it is still good.
I am in charge of my life.
My pain is not who I am.
My pain can't control me.
I have pain, but my pain doesn't have me.
Even though I have pain, I have a lot to offer.
My pain doesn't change who I am.
I can still be close to people.