Mental Tips to Challenge your Anxious Thinking

We have thousands of thoughts every day and not all of them are accurate. Here are a few tips

to master your anxious thoughts instead of letting them master you:

Separate Self from Thoughts- Imagine and notice thoughts/feelings in the image of a train

or cloud going by or a tv/radio where you can practice turning the sound up and down on your

thoughts. Remind yourself a thought is just a thought.

Best, Worst, Most Likely Technique- Ask yourself what is the worst thing that could

happen in this situation? What is the very best thing that could happen? What is the most likely

thing that could happen? What is the likelihood in a percentage that the worst thing will

actually happen?

Put Thoughts on Trial- Examine the evidence for a thought being true or not and replace it

when necessary. Evaluate the pros and cons of keeping certain thoughts and determine if they

are helpful or not.

Address Cognitive Distortions- Notice if you are thinking logically or if your mind is

engaging in an illogical pattern of thinking called a cognitive distortion. There are several types

of cognitive distortions such as: catastrophizing (jumping to the worst possible outcome),

emotional reasoning (reasoning from your emotions rather than the facts), mind reading

(believing you know what someone else must be thinking), overgeneralization (where you take

one situation and apply it as an identifier over other areas of your life), and all-or-nothing

thinking (thinking in absolutes such as “always” or “never”).