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Thought Tracking Sheet: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

It has been two decades since I learned the power of thought tracking and it saved my life. I first wrote about thought tracking in 2009, today, 13 years later, I am sharing the tool so that you can use it yourself. I have created this free thought tracking sheet that you can use to track, understand, and change your thoughts.

Click here to download the sheet now. Read on for more information about how the sheet works and how to use it.

For people who suffer from anxiety, distorted thoughts are very common—so common, in fact, that they become automatic. Learning how to stop automatic, negative, irrational thoughts is a powerful tool for overcoming anxiety.

Using a thought tracking sheet like this one is an effective method for changing our thought processes. You can use this sheet, to track your thoughts as they occur to you. Or at the end of the day, you can reflect on thoughts that you had throughout the day, and fill in this sheet. If you do wait to the end of the day to fill in your sheet, it may be helpful to jot things down during the day to come back to later.

When you download the sheets, you will find 2 pages. The first is a sample sheet that show examples of how to use the sheet. The second is a blank sheet for you to fill in yourself. You can print this and write in your thoughts or the sheet is available as a Google Drive document if you prefer to type your thoughts in.

As you use begin to use this powerful tool, you will be amazed at the results. Tracking your thoughts in this manner will absolutely change your life if you stick with it. Commit to this process and watch your life transform.

Now let’s talk about thought tracking and why it is so powerful.

Anxiety is caused by negative, irrational thoughts. All people experience negative, irrational thoughts occasionally. However, in the anxious mind negative, irrational thoughts are too frequent and intense. It is healthy to have a balance of rational, healthy thoughts and occasional negative, irrational thoughts. But when there is an imbalance, anxiety arises. The frequency and intensity of the negative, irrational thoughts makes way for mental illness. The person is unable to see through the negativity and irrationality. Anxiety consumes them.

This was the case for me for the first 20 years of my life and as such, I was so overwhelmed by my anxiety that I became suicidal. This is why I say that learning to change my thoughts saved my life. I am most certain that if I had stayed on the path that I was on, I would not be alive today.

This is the power of changing your thought process. It can transform and save your life.

By using a thought tracking sheet like this one, with practice, you can learn to change your negative, irrational thoughts into positive, rational thoughts. YOu can eliminate anxiety, overcome mental illness, and live in peace.

You Are Not Your Thoughts and Your Thoughts Are Not Always True

The first step to changing your thoughts is to understand that you are not your thoughts, you are the conscious presence behind your thoughts. If you quiet your mind for a moment and be still, so that no thoughts are running through your mind, you will notice that you still exist. You are still present. You are still breathing. That presence is who you are. Your thoughts are not you, they are just thoughts.

To overcome anxiety, we must recognize our thoughts for what they are and understand that they are not who we are. This distinction is critical. We must never be completely identified with our thoughts. We must always remember that our thoughts come and go. They are not real and we do not have to believe them. Our thoughts are not always true or valid. Just because you think something, that doesn’t make it true. Learn to question your thoughts. They are just thoughts, passing through your mind. You have control over your thoughts, not the other way around.

Identifying the Types of Thoughts

Negative irrational thoughts are just that—negative and irrational. Likewise, positive, rational thoughts are positive and rational. Most anxious people have been anxious for so long that they do not even realize that most of their thoughts are negative and irrational. In other words, they can’t see the forest through the trees.

This is why thought tracking is so important. We write our thoughts down and they are suddenly very clear and visible to us. From here, we can recognize our thoughts for what they are and we can begin to change them. Many people want to skip the part where you have to write down your thoughts because it can be tedious. But for the anxious mind this is a most critical step. We must first write down our thoughts and manually change them. With time, this will happen automatically. But in the beginning, writing them down is critical. It is like learning any new skill. You must start out slow and eventually, you will master it.

For me, it took about 6 months of writing my thoughts down, and then one day it began to happen automatically. I no longer needed to write them down. Your mind will just begin to transform thoughts automatically. It will be incredible and life changing. But do not rush to that point. Put in the work now of writing down your thoughts. It will be worth it.

The easiest way to sight the difference between negative, irrational thoughts and positive rational thoughts is by comparing examples. Let’s look at a few now.

Negative Irrational: It is raining out this morning. I am definitely going to have a bad day.
Positive Rational: It is raining out this morning. What a gift! It has been dry for awhile, we desperately need the water.

Negative Irrational: My parents are on the verge of losing their house. This is all my fault. I should have never been born.
Positive Rational: It is unfortunate about my parent’s financial situation. Still, I recognize that their problems are not my own. I will offer them love and support with healthy boundaries in place.

Negative Irrational: That guy just hit my car bumper. Just my luck. I can’t afford this. I’m going to be late for work. I’m going to get fired. Bad things always happen to me. If I lose my job, I will lose my house. I am on the verge of being homeless.
Positive Rational: That guy just hit my car bumper. Thank goodness that I am not hurt and we were both doing the speed limit. This could have been a lot worse.

In these examples we can see the difference between the thought types. There are many more examples on the sheet. Every thought has the potential to be either negative or positive. And every thought has the potential to be either irrational or rational. Learning to switch our thought process in this way is the path to freedom from anxiety.

How to Change Your Thoughts by Practice

Writing thoughts down on your thought tracking sheet throughout the day is the best method of tracking your thoughts. Every time you start to feel anxious, write down the thoughts that pass through your mind. If you have time in the moment, you can begin to analyze your thoughts by filling out the other columns on the sheet.

Write down the situation, what actually happened to cause the thoughts. Write down the actual thoughts. Write down the emotions that the thoughts made you feel. Write down your behavior in reaction to the thoughts. And finally, write down an alternate thought. Your original thought will usually be negative and irrational, so your alternate thought should be positive and rational.

It’s that simple! This process, as simple as it may seem, absolutely has the power to change your life. I am telling you this from experience. It completely changed, and saved, my life. It can do the same for you if you stick with it.

In Closing

If you haven’t done so yet, go ahead and download your free thought tracking sheet.

What I have shared here today is the basic outline for tracking your thoughts. WHile I used this method to get a strong handle on my anxiety, sometimes my anxiety catches up with me, even today, two decades since I started this practice. Whenever that happens, I just go back to the basic. I track my thoughts again until I find my mindset changing.

Over the years, I have continued to educate myself about the power of thinking, human behavior and cognitive behavioral therapy. I have learned so much and in coming posts, I will share much more. Stay tuned.

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    Review: The Power of Now

    The Power of Now had been on my “to-read” list for years when, by a stroke of fate, a dear friend offered to lend me her audio copy. Based on my general understanding of the book and its content (prior to reading it) I felt that I would enjoy it; however, I was completely unprepared for the way that the book would speak to me, transform my perspective, and change my life.

    The Unreal Past & Future

    In The Power of Now, we learn that to live in the future or the past is to suffer. The only way to exist in true harmony is to live in the now. After all, the past is not real, the future is not real. The past and the future only exist in our minds.

    When I first heard this concept I refused to believe or comprehend it. Of course my past is real, I thought. Of course my future is real, too. How dare someone suggest that it is not? My ego lashed out; but then I thought more about it. I listened, opened my mind, and realized that it was true. I am going to ask you to walk through an exercise with me to help you understand.

    Let’s recall a memory in which you are eating something. Let’s say, for example, it’s a hot summer day and you’re licking an ice cream cone. Now, where ever you are—right now, present moment, not in the memory—I’d like you to stick your finger right into the ice cream and then throw it to the floor. Can you do that? Can you touch that ice cream cone from your memory? No, of course you can’t (unless you’re on hallucinogenics but that’s another story).

    The fact is that right now you can not touch that ice cream cone and therefore it is not real. It may seem real in your memory—in your mind—but it is not really “real”…not here, not now, not in existence. It is only a memory and it only exists in your mind.

    This principle is also true for the future. Imagine any future scenario in your mind. You win the lottery. You get fired from your job. You purchase a house. You fall off of a cliff. You can play each of those scenes out in your head. You can fill in as much detail as you like. You can mentally experience the future, but the truth remains that the future scenario isn’t “real”. You can’t actually reach out and touch anything in the future right now. The future only exists in your mind.

    When I finally grasped this concept I was shocked & amazed. It seems simple, but somehow I had been missing it for my entire life! To me, the past and the future were as real as the present. The past happened to me. The future was going to happen to me. I held on to these concepts for dear life. But then I realized the truth… the past and the present are not that important. They’re not even real. They are only in my head.

    You might be feeling a bit angry right now. (I know because I was at this point.) You might be thinking, How dare you claim that my past is not real? I’ve suffered, I’ve lived, I’ve triumphed, I’ve done X, Y, and Z. And my future, that is real too! I am going to do things 1, 2, 3, and so on!

    Your Ego Feeds on the Past & Future

    Well, my friend, I am not sorry to break it to you. That voice of anger is fueled by fear and the fear is coming from your ego.

    For your entire life, your ego has been calling the shots. He rules you by fear—fear over your past and fear over your future. So long as you believe in the reality of your past and your future, your ego has control over you. It uses every thing that ever happened in the past against you. It uses everything that you hope to happen in the future against you.

    There is only one way to overcome your ego and that is to live completely in the now. Let go of the past and the future. Be fully present in this moment.

    It is not easy. You’ve spent your entire life ruled by your ego, living in the past and present. But while it’s not easy, it is possible. It’s entirely possible for you to begin living entirely in the present moment, entirely in peace, love, & light, entirely free from the chains of your ego.

    The Power of Now is an excellent book and if you truly listen to every word and practice its teachings in your daily life, you will succeed. It has been quite a journey for me already and I’ve only been on it for a few weeks now! I am experiencing life in ways that I never dreamed possible. You can do it, too.

    *********

    Here are some of my favourite pieces from The Power of Now along with my interpretations of each.

    You have it already. You just can’t feel it because your mind is making too much noise.
    Eckhart Tolle tells us that that many people ask him to “give” them his gift. His response is always the same, You already have it.

    This is entirely true. Each of us already has the immense power of now within. Tolle nor anyone else can “give” that to us—but what he can do (and does in the book) is to show you how to harness the power in your own life.

    Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction; but we don’t realize it because almost everyone is suffering from it. So, it is considered normal.
    After reading (listening to) The Power of Now, I realized that yes, the modern human being is suffering from a debilitating disease: compulsive over thinking.

    It is so obvious to me now! How many millions of people are suffering from anxiety, depression, and so on? Most of these individuals are suffering as such simply because of compulsive over thinking.

    When we stop our compulsive, ego-driven thoughts, we live in harmony. Sadly, however, most people just don’t know how to stop those thoughts.

    We must become the silent observer, as Tolle describes in the book. The first step to overcoming the compulsive thoughts is to recognize them, to be the silent observer of your mind.

    To see, but not see. To hear, but not hear.
    Have you ever had a moment, an hour, or a day where you were entirely mindless?

    For example, you are driving along the road completely spaced out from reality and suddenly you “wake up” and you don’t know where your head has been for some stretch of time. You know that you must have been seeing and aware, because you didn’t crash your vehicle. But you weren’t really there. You were seeing but not seeing.

    Another example, you are in conversation with a friend or loved one and you begin zoning out. You hear words coming out of her mouth, but when she finally stops talking, you realize that you have no idea what she just said. You were listening, but you weren’t really there. You were hearing but not hearing.

    This is what it means to see, but not see; to hear, but not hear. It is living life in an unconscious state, on autopilot. Most likely you are daydreaming about the unreal past or future. You can overcome this state of nothingness and time wasting by harnessing the power of now and being fully present in each moment.

    Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is the only chance for the survival of our species.
    “Humanity is under great pressure to evolve because it is our only chance of survival as a race. This will affect every aspect of your life and close relationships in particular. Never before have relationships been as problematic and conflict ridden as they are now. As you may continue to pursue the goal of salvation through a relationship, you will be disillusioned again and again. But if you accept that the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy, then the relationship will offer you salvation, and you will be aligning yourself with the higher consciousness that wants to be born into this world. For those who hold to the old patterns, there will be increasing pain, violence, confusion, and madness.”

    *********

    I could write ten posts about The Power of Now and I would only begin to scratch the surface. The book is extremely intensive. Tolle’s language is thick and weighted with meaning. The content is formatted as question and answer for the sake of clarity—but it is still heavy reading. As I mentioned earlier, I listened to the audio book and I would highly recommend this format. I have heard that reading the text can be confusing and I can understand why.

    The audio book does span several hours, but it is entirely worth every moment. If you can not afford to buy the audio book, you should consider borrowing it from your local library.

    If you decide to read or have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts. Whether or not you decide to, I hope that you will consider the ideas that I have shared in this post.

    Thinking about being somewhere else uses up your precious, present moments. Be here now. —Wayne Dyer

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