Improve Your Decision Making With These Cognitive Behavioral Therapies
We are told to trust our intuition when it comes to making decisions, but we also know that our intuition can lead us astray.
This is where cognitive behavioral therapy can be extremely helpful. By better attuned to when our feelings and behaviors are leading us in the right direction (versus when our instinct is full of shit), we can begin to both make better decisions and relate better to the decisions we make.
Here’s one quick and easy example to get you started: At Fast Company , health and wellness expert Paula Rizzo advises us to start paying attention to how we feel about the decisions we make and how we feel after we make them. accepted .
Rizzo invites you to write down your feelings right before, during and after the assignment, making mental notes. “You may not always like what you do, but if you hate it, remind yourself not to do it again,” she says. “At that moment you can say yes to the request, but if deep down you know that it is causing you anxiety, it’s better to say no.”
In other words: if you’re worried about taking part in a social event but then left after having a great time (or not even a terrible time), you can reduce your anxiety about future social events.
On the other hand, if you’re worried about making another commitment when you’re already on schedule, notice how you feel when you say yes to that commitment – and how you feel when it comes. time to actually make a commitment may tell you if you need to say “silence” more often in the future.
This type of technique works best in conjunction with other CBT practices, especially when you begin to identify mental scenarios and underlying beliefs that you have developed over the course of your life and assess whether those beliefs are consistent with reality. I recommend reading Seth J. Gillihan’s book Simple Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: 10 Strategies for Managing Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Panic, and Anxiety, and I also recommend keeping a journal in which you write down what you think and / or fears will happen. given the scenario, whether those beliefs and concerns have come true, and what have you learned from the experience.
So the next time you have to make a decision that makes you feel a little uncomfortable, pay attention to why you are uncomfortable. Is this anxiety due to an outdated core belief or excessive fear of the future? Are you being asked to make a decision that violates your boundaries, values, or ethics? Or is it just a “hell yes or no” situation and you don’t feel like hell, do you ?
And then, after the decision is made, pay attention to how you feel and whether the result is what you expected. That way, next time you can make a better, faster and / or more confident decision.