Assignment task:
1. Think of a specific moment in time when you felt upset (recent moment works best but it doesn't have to be recent). (Ie: Yesterday evening before I went to sleep when I was thinking about all of the work I needed to finish). Write the event at the top of your paper.
2. List your negative thoughts on the paper (ie. "I'm never going to get this done". "This is too much for me". "My boss will be unsatisfied with my work".) Only include the negative thoughts associated with how you were feeling in that moment. Factual statements or feeling statements will not work for the exercise.
3. Write feelings associated with each thought in parentheses next to each thought (Please review the Feeling Words Chart (Feeling Words Chart.doc
4. Write your explanation about why each distortion fits with that thought (ie. "I'm never going to get this done"= Fortune Telling because I'm assuming that I won't get this done in the future when in reality I don't know. All-or-nothing thinking because I'm thinking about the entire amount of work rather than considering each aspect or step that it takes. Self-blame because I'm blaming myself in this situation when there are other areas of my life that are requiring my attention and that makes it more difficult to focus on my work).
5. Re-write your thoughts without the distortions in them (ie. "I'm never going to get this done". = "I feel anxious about the amount of work I need to accomplish but I can break the work down into smaller steps and make time in my schedule to help myself accomplish them").
6. Write a reflection about how this exercise went for you.