Psychology has many facets to it, it’s a layered ideology of a multitude of concepts that pertain the brain. It’s a consistently evolving study, just like every other science. One of the most persistent issues that the human brain faces and comes across is stress. Everyone has experienced a form of stress in our modern day society. We have felt anxious, scared, and nervous before. All of those tie back to stress and stressors in our personal lives.
In my psychology of stress class, we recently dove into a great set of presentations that focused on stress relieving exercises everyday people can practice in their day to day life. The one I chose was Cognitive Restructuring. This practice is not easy, but it’s very doable.
Now you may be wondering why the hell I’m blogging about a school topic. Hear me out. During my presentations today, I really felt connected to this topic. Because as much as it is a psychological topic, I have definitely allowed this to be a core practice within my personal growth. So now let me tell you what this shit really is.
Cognitive Restructuring is, well, what the name kind of implies. It’s a practice to restructure or rationalize your cognitive or mental thoughts. Now, it’s not simple. Even though on the surface it seems like all you have to do is rewire your entire brain to think better thoughts it’s actually more than that.
Our society tends to take things very personally. Let’s say your boss, friend, parent, or partner are upset. They are angry, not speaking to you, or completely blocking you out. Our natural reaction is think “well damn I fucked out.” Or “oh shoot, they are unhappy with my actions, my words, my body language and so forth.” Our natural reaction is to jump to conclusions. And our conclusions usually center around negative actions on our own behalf. But who is to say that your friends lack of communication with you is your fault? Who is to say that if your partner is angry or crying that it’s all your fault?
That’s where cognitive restructuring comes into play here. These thoughts and conclusions that we jump to evoke stress, anxiety, sadness and feelings of unworthiness within us. So then why do we automatically assume the worst? What if we just take our initial though and morph it into a positive one? What is we allow ourselves to think “My person is stressed, is having a rough time in work or something at home happened that led them to be upset, and it’s not within my control?” This way, we have a positive outlook on what could possibly be happening. And this way it also allows us to communicate with the other party to make sure they are okay and assess those feelings.
Many people project a lot of their personal issues because they are either still learning how to handle their feelings or they just don’t even know. I know I project. I know I’m learning. I know that I jump to conclusions. I feel emotions too deeply sometimes from other people so I take it up as my own baggage. I’m learning to let go of that. If people are upset, I let them be angry. I let them and always make sure that I don’t think negatively of my own self and feed into their energy. And if by any chance it does illicit a negative emotion from me, I do my best to get to the source of why that pains me and what nerve that strikes.
We as people have to realize that we are the ones in control of our lives. Our thoughts, ideas, hopes, dreams, happiness, emotions, and love are all within ourselves. We are the ones who are able to do everything possible. We must program ourselves to be more positive. We have to be thankful for what we have and keep striving towards even better.
I do understand this doesn’t apply as easily to people who are starving and have no shelter or water. And for that I am sorry to try and broaden this to EVERYONE. But those who have access to this blog should also be able to reconstruct and reinvent themselves.
It’s a good day to be alive. Have a blessed one. Namaste 🌈💕🍃🌎☀️
The Better ME 