As therapists, we support other people. Sometimes we could use a little support ourselves. These inspirational articles from ABMP’s own Massage & Bodywork magazine can help.
5 Massage & Bodywork Articles for Inspiration
Therapeutic hair pulling accesses the muscles and fascia of the scalp and face. Watch how to implement it correctly—your clients will thank you!
Pull Your Client's Hair (Really!)
Some days it seems like everything is going wrong. If your mood is taking a nosedive—Take 5!
Strategies to Change a Bad Mood Fast
Is Negativity Impacting Your Life?
We’ve all had bad days—sometimes bad weeks—when nothing feels like it’s going right. Usually we can snap out of the funk in short order and rebound back to positivity. Sometimes, however, we get stuck in negative patterns.
Cognitive Distortions
Psychiatrist Aaron Beck proposed the idea of cognitive distortions, defining them as thoughts that cause people to perceive reality inaccurately. These distortions tend to interfere with the way a person perceives an event, and they often reinforce negative thoughts and emotions that only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves or our situations. Review these 10 common cognitive distortions and ask yourself: is this me?
1. Good and Bad Thinking
Do you view a person as good or bad? Do you view a certain class as good or bad? Do you view yourself as good or bad? Usually people and situations are more complex. When we can embrace complexity, we are more likely to have a balanced response to other people, circumstances, and ourselves.
2. Fixing the Blame
Do you constantly chastise yourself for things that are not your fault? Do you regularly transfer all of the responsibility for a situation to other people without considering your role in the situation? Usually, when relationships or situations do not proceed optimally, it is because of a variety of factors. We want to sort out what we can do better and what others can do better to have a calm and grounded discussion to improve outcomes.
3. Control Misconceptions
Do you commonly take responsibility for other people’s pain or happiness? This is called an internal control fallacy, meaning you don’t create enough separation between the feeling states of yourself or others. Do you commonly believe that the things that happen to you are a result of fate and that you bear little or no personal responsibility? This is called an external control fallacy, meaning we place too much emphasis on power outside ourselves and don’t fully embrace our own power in our lives.
4. Catastrophizing
Do you ever hear about something bad happening to another person and feel certain it will also happen to you? After a difficult situation passes, do you ever realize that you blew it out of proportion at the time or overreacted? Misfortune occurs, but that doesn’t mean we can’t remain positive and solution-oriented in the midst of difficult times.
5. Change Delusion
Think about the important people in your life. Are you constantly trying to change their behaviors, attitudes, or motivations? People often assume that, with enough effort, they can transform others and thereby feel more contentment themselves. While negotiating wants and needs with other people is important, the only people we can actually change are ourselves.
6. Emotional Reasoning
When we believe that our feelings are a completely accurate portrayal of reality, we often misread situations or people. Your feelings are real and deserve exploration, however, it is best to work through feelings to determine from where they are truly originating before letting them color your entire world.
7. Fairness Fallacy
People have an implicit belief that situations should be fair, and are constantly scanning the environment to determine if they are being dealt with in a just manner. However, we all know that the world is not always fair and sometimes we will experience disappointment at the ways things turn out. The goal is to remain rational about fairness so we don’t end up always feeling cheated and resentful.
8. Filtering Positives
In a single day we might experience 10 positive incidents and one negative one. If we’re not careful, we will focus solely on the negative incident and even blow it out of proportion. We often filter out the positives and develop an unbalanced view of our day, week, month, and year.
9. Score-Keeping Fallacy
Many people believe there is a great universal force that keeps score. They go through life making sacrifices for other people, their work, or their community. Internally, they feel overly extended and even resentful, but they put on a happy face and keep “doing good” hoping that the universe will even the score with a windfall. When the windfall never comes, or when they experience misfortune, they feel even more resentful at the injustice of the universe.
10. Assumption Inaccuracies
Do you jump to conclusions about what another person is thinking or feeling or about to do? It is easy to interact with people based on what we assume will happen, but this will likely lead to further misunderstanding. The only way to actually know what a person thinks or feels is to ask.
Distortion Busting
The only way to bust through distortions like these is to increase your self-awareness. First, notice when you are engaged in negative thinking or behaviors. Notice what’s happening and get curious about it. What’s really going on? Maybe you use your negative thinking to protect yourself from hard feelings. Notice your hard feelings and give them a little room to breathe. Challenge some of your negative thoughts and counter them with positives. Affirm yourself and affirm what is good in other people and other situations. Coach yourself every day and you’ll find that you can get a handle on your distortions and they won’t have so much control over your life.