Do What Scares You. DO IT AGAIN.
Doing what scares you can be terrifying - the phrase is self-explanatory. Notably though, growth and change rarely come from the safety of our established comfort zones.
By Jessica Young, Featured Writer.
As we enter the third month of the year it is time to wave goodbye to January blues and forgive February faux pas. We have officially reached the quarter milestone of the year commencing the new decade: 2020. Is it just me or does that still sound far too futuristic? Yet, here we are striving to make this year ‘our year’. It is that cliché of “new year, new me” (well, we are three months in!), though at this point, those of us that made new year's resolutions have possibly buckled by now, and those of us that did not are most likely continuing as usual - there is comfort in habit after all. Nonetheless, what if alongside the promise of spring and the reassurance that March can offer us, we decided to make some changes?
Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in ruts, repeating patterns of thought and behaviour, feeding our own insecurities and unproductiveness. Situations that land upon us can feel out of our control – but you know what we can aim to control? How we process them, how we react to them and the patterns we create from this. Every day we make choices regarding how we think, behave, and feel; arguably, there are parameters set within which we make such choices, or we would all be millionaire astronauts, right? But the matter remains that human beings hold great influence over the choices and changes they can make.
Cognitive-behavioural principles have been a dominant therapeutic approach in the treatment of mental health struggles such as depression and anxiety. However, the concepts offer more than an intervention option for labelled mental conditions, they provide us with an insight into how we can structure real and lasting changes. After all, we are what we do, not what we promise to do.
So,
What does the cognitive-behavioural approach entail?
How can you overcome your own negative thoughts?
Actions speak louder than words: changing your behaviours.
What is cognitive-behavioural understanding?
Cognition refers to our internal mental frameworks; our thoughts, perceptions, memories, intellectual processes and so on. On the other hand, behaviour refers to what we do including our actions and reactions; conscious and beyond conscious choice.
Behaviourism became a dominant approach at the start of the 20th century, focusing on the actions an individual engages with and displays, and how these can be influenced by external factors. With earlier studies including Pavlov’s work in the 1890s, the approach developed further with key figures such as Watson and Rayner and the ‘Little Albert Experiment’ (1920). Pavlov (1897), pioneered classical conditioning having accidentally discovered the phenomenon whilst researching dog’s salivation in-response to food. Noticing that the dogs would begin salivation in the absence of food but in the presence of the feeder, he further studied how salivation could be elicited. Conducting studies in which the sound of a bell was repeatedly paired with the presentation of food, Pavlov conditioned the dogs to salivate solely in response to the bell; in the absence of the original stimulus (the food). Thus, the neutral stimulus (the bell), became associated with the unconditioned stimulus (food), resulting in the dog displaying a conditioned response (salivating) in the sole presence of the conditioned stimulus (the bell).
Whilst behaviourism has had a great impact relating to what individual’s do, the cognitive approach heightened focus regarding our internal mental worlds. The rise of the computer is often associated with cognitive understanding, in the sense that a computer provides an analogy for our internal workings. Relating to information inputs (sensory information e.g. sight), programmes to conduct processing (sequence of mental processes) and an output resulting from the processing (such as memories, perceptions or behavioural responses).
Nevertheless, the cognitive-behavioural approach does not view what we do and how we process as separate interties, rather as interactive components of a wider framework. Beck (1963), outlined how our mental selves can become intertwined in a negative cycle exemplified by the cognitive triad principle. Each point of the triangular principle can impact the other, exacerbating the overall negative influence upon the individual as the cycle revolves.
The negative view of the world could develop from previous trauma leading to the formation of negative schemas (mental representations), about the world we live in. An example being if an individual witnessed a violent assault when younger they may form the schema that the world around them is a dangerous and vicious place; and so, would proceed to live and understand their life in-line with this mental framework.
These negative thoughts form our views and beliefs, though the impact extends beyond this. Cognitive-behavioural understanding provides models for how our thoughts, behaviours, and feelings are interactively linked as seen with the five areas model (NHS, 2019).
Each element of the model has an interactive relationship with one-another, the interactions are bidirectional and can either be positive or negative.
For example:
A situation where we have a looming deadline at university or work
We think that we are going to hand in a poor assignment because we are not good enough
Physically we experience nausea and sweating with headaches
Avoidance behaviours as we do not want to face the task we think of failing
This can affirm our thoughts of a failing self (we are not even capable of starting)
In-turn making us feel physically more nauseous
All of which leaves us feeling distraughtly anxious and guilty, which can feed back into the interactive model.
The entire framework contributes to an overall doom and gloom experience.
Thus, the cognitive-behavioural approach highlights how all the components can be impacted by and impactful upon, how we feel and how we experience our lives. Whatever degree of free will you believe we have as individuals, because we sure do have powers of influence, it is important to realise that we hold some responsibility for these components. Our negative thoughts, fears, and emotions are part of a much wider framework and thus, their impact can be vast – if we ourselves do not act.
2020, about time we start doing what scares us?
Slaying the monsters of our minds
Our ability to think about the ways in which we think is one of the beauties of being a human.
When you write it down like that it almost sounds incomprehensible, cognitive beings able to cognitively analyse and process their own cognition. Yet, despite this wonderful capability, we can let negativity take root too often. We are not always our own biggest fans nor the worlds. One of the problems with this is that negative thinking sets a dreary tone for much more. If we think negatively about oneself, we begin to interpret most things relating to our self as negative also; the world around us, the people around us, the experiences we are part of and much more.
Fear: Of failure. Of not being good enough. Of loss or dire consequence.
Fear is one of the most challenging negative thought cycles to be stuck in. If you were faced by a leviathan, the chances of you stripping down to your swimsuit and hopping in for a peaceful swim are highly unlikely right? Whilst you would be wise to avoid such a situation, fear stands in our way far too often: it blockades us, paralyses us. But, at the end of the day, fear boils down to apprehension of consequences arising from your actions. You do not do something, or you will not do something, because of the consequential ‘something’ potentially coming your way - the consequences you THINK are coming your way.
It is our duty to check our own internal worlds, if we do not maintain some order over our negative thoughts, then who will?
So, how do we face the demons?
Cognitive-behavioural principles outline different techniques that can be used both in therapy but also by the individual, to challenge and restructure ways of thinking. Whilst some fears are well-grounded, for example I would not recommend petting a venomous snake; other fears tend to be built-upon a lot of ‘ifs’, uncertain potentials, and inflations of the mind.
Thought trackers:
Using a thought tracker such as the above can help individuals to see that it is not always wise to follow our own thoughts wholeheartedly. By no means should we disregard ourselves, but there is no harm in referring to the evidence at hand.
When one takes the time to really and truly think about their own thought, it is quite possible that the mind does not match the matter. Humans are subject to bias, emotions, past experiences and so on. We do not operate as objective nor factual beings – thus, our thoughts can become clouded or out of our own reach. Once we start to challenge and redirect less helpful ways of thinking, we make room for more positive patterns. Cognitive-behavioural principles highlight how thoughts form part of a wider, interactive framework: addressing them is a step towards positively influencing the whole system.
Small choices to make that difference, to check whether the roots of negativity have become imbedded in our minds – we must do the work as individuals to weed our mental selves.
Start to exert influence over your own mind.
Do it, dare yourself.
Avoidance, we have all been there, we have all done it and we were wrong.
As highlighted, thought patterns such as fear have an impact on how we think and perceive situations – however, it also initiates survival mechanisms and for humans one of the best ways to do so is to avoid the entire situation all together. It might seem to make logical sense: you are apprehensive something bad will happen to you, so you don’t do anything that could bring that bad upon you. However, our perceptions and apprehensions can sometimes be inflated, and thus our behaviours distorted in-line with this.
Negative behaviours such as avoidance are not only costly for our journey towards growth and betterment, but they feed back into the framework: upholding and agreeing to our negative thoughts and feelings. Such behaviours can be minimal, you might put off sending an email to your boss until the next day or pay little attention to your finances, but these behaviours feed overall negative patterns.
So, not only can you challenge and improve your mental self but developing your acting and behaving self contributes further to a positive feedback loop. Of course, saying you could or should make changes and actualising these changes are two different playfields altogether. BUT, if you give yourself the chance and the trust to check, analyse, reconstruct, and grow a more daring and positive you; slowly but surely you shall begin to trust yourself to care for yourself.
Doing what scares you can be terrifying - the phrase is self-explanatory. Notably though, growth and change rarely come from the safety of our established comfort zones.
DO WHAT SCARES YOU, AND THEN DO IT AGAIN.
AND AGAIN.
References
Beck, A. T. (1963), ‘Thinking and depression. I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions’, Archive of General Psychiatry, vol 9, pp. 324-333.
NHS (2019), Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). [Online]. Available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-cbt/how-it-works/, (Accessed 11/03/2020).
Pavlov, I. P. (1897/1902). The work of the digestive glands. London: Griffin.
Watson, J. and Rayner, R. (1920), ‘Conditioned Emotional Reactions’, Journal of Experimental Psychology, US: Psychological Review Company, vol. 3, (1), pp. 1-14, Available at https://web-b-ebscohost-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=3db2b2bc-68d7-4e57-9c7e-25faeac82fd7%40sessionmgr102 (Accessed 11/03/2020).