Daily Mood Log

This is another effective tool to challenge our thinking. It focuses on trying to make people aware of which thinking errors they are making in their thinking and helps them to establish new and more helpful thoughts.

Describe your Upsetting event

This is the same as column A of the ABC diaries. Write down the situation or event you are in when the upset started. Again pay attention to triggers and sensations.

Record Your negative Feelings

Here you list feelings again with one word and rate how strongly your feel them.

The triple Column Technique

In the first column write down a list of thoughts that were going on in your mind when you were feeling like this and were in this situation. This tool is helpful to untwist your thinking. Often when you are overwhelmed or feel like your head is all muddled, this tool will help you put one thought at a time on paper so you can see them in black and white and begin to challenge them, rather than let them overwhelm you.

In the second column, list the distortions you are using. CBT has a list of cognitive distortions or ‘thinking errors’ which people make all the time, but which hold people imprisoned in their thoughts rather then allowing them to see things from another perspective. Use the list below to identify some of the distortions you might be making in your thinking.

In the third column, think of new thoughts that are more realistic and helpful which you could think instead or the next time you are in similar situations. Often, after having examined your thoughts with the thinking errors list, you come to more realistic thinking and can see for yourself what mistakes you are making in your thinking.

Column 1-Negative Thoughts

Write down the thoughts that make you upset and estimate your belief in each one

Column 2- Distortions

Use the Distorted Thinking List

Column 3- Positive Thoughts

Substitute more realistic thoughts and estimate your belief in each one