Be The Boss of Your Thoughts
Your thoughts shape your emotions, and the good news? You have the power to shape your thoughts. By changing their internal dialogue, learners can recognize that they are in control of their emotions—not the other way around.
What Are Twisted Thoughts?
Imagine your brain sometimes plays tricks on you by thinking scary things that aren't true. These tricks are called "cognitive distortions," and they can make you feel sad or worried. We prefer the term “Twisted Thinking”
Examples of Twisted Thoughts:
Catastrophizing:
Thinking the worst possible thing will always happen, like if you forget your homework, you'll fail the whole class.
Labeling:
Saying bad things about yourself or others based on just one thing, like calling someone "stupid" if they got one question wrong on a test.
Mind-reading:
Guessing what someone else is thinking without asking them, like thinking your teacher hates you because they didn't smile at you.
Focusing on the negative:
Only noticing bad things and forgetting about the good things, like only remembering the one time you tripped and not all the times you did well.
How Twisted Thoughts Can Make You Feel:
Anxious: Worried about things that might not happen
Sad: Feeling down about yourself or your life
Angry: Mad at others for things they didn't do
Activity Time: COG Cards
Our Cog Cards help learners articulate their feelings to discover healthy strategies to address their negative emotions.
More information coming soon!
How to Stop Twisted thinking and Be the BOSS of your thoughts:
Take a deep breath: When you feel upset, pause and calm down before you jump to conclusions.
Think differently: Choose a healthy activity to express your emotions. Try to see things from different angles, not just the negative ones.
Boss Your Thoughts: Ask yourself if there's proof to support your thoughts. Tell yourself you don’t have to listen to thoughts that bully you, you are in charge. Change your thoughts, change your emotions.
Be kind to yourself: Don't label yourself with bad words, and remember that everyone makes mistakes.
You Can Do it! The Braingers can Help!
Our Braingers are mini puppets that our students designed to give character to positive behaviors that help you work through negative thoughts! We’ll have them available for purchase soon - in the mean time, here are some Stories and character overviews.
