Developing the whole person

• THOUGHTS INFLUENCE FEELINGS


  After studying hard, but doing poorly on a test, you think, “I’ll never succeed at anything,” which leads to feeling bad about your abilities as a student and feeling hopeless about the future
• Ways of Becoming Self-Aware


  • Look at Yourself Objectively
  • Try to Identify your current understanding by writing out your perceptions
  • Ask for Feedback
  • Ask Trusted Friends to Describe you
  • Perform Daily Self-Reflection
  • Take Personality and Psychometrics Tests
  • Keep A Journal
• A person’s holistic development involves

  • Thoughts (Cognition)
  • Feelings (Affect)
  • Behavior
• BEHAVIOR INFLUENCES THOUGHTS


  Your lack of studying for the next exam results in another poor grade. You think, “Here we go again. I don’t know why I even keep trying. It’s useless. I’m a failure”
• FEELINGS INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR


  You feel hopeless about studying for the next exam, and dwell on your sad feelings. You then procrastinate studying and don’t study hard, because you still feel so discouraged about your last exam
• Characteristics of ANTs

  • They are always negative
  • They make you feel bad about yourself
  • They are not useful
• C.B.T (Cognitive Behavioural Theraphy)

  1. Thought - What we think affect how we act and feel

  2. Emotion - What we feel affects what we think and do

  3. Behavior - What we do affects how we think and feel
• Awareness should be a continuous means for keeping up to date with one’s self because self-construct also changes as a person develops
• Self-Awareness


  Understanding one’s own beliefs, thoughts, motivations, and recognizing how they affect others
• FEELINGS INFLUENCE THOUGHTS


  A friend has to cancel his plans with you because they have a family obligation. You feel disappointed, which prompts you to think, “Maybe they just made up that excuse because they don’t want to hang out with me”
• THOUGHTS INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR


  You begin to think badly of your friend and recall times in the past when you haven’t gotten along. When your friend calls to make plans, you get even by telling them that you have other plans (when you really don’t)
• BEHAVIOR INFLUENCES FEELINGS


  Your friend accepts your excuse and doesn’t appear to feel bad. You spend the day alone and convince yourself that your friend is probably having more fun without you. You feel lonely, sad, and disappointed
• AUTOMATIC NEGATIVE THOUGHTS (ANTS) are negatively framed interpretations of what we think is happening to us. They can lead to self-doubt, depression, anxiety, anger, irritability, and low mood
• ANTs can lead to self-doubt, depression, anxiety, anger, irritability, and low mood
• Common ANTs

  • All or nothing thinking
  • Over-generalizing
  • Mental Filter
  • Disqualifying the positive
  • Jumping to conclusions
  • Magnification
  • Emotional reasoning
  • Should Must
  • Labelling
  • Personalization
• Jumping to conclusions

  1. Mind Reading: Imagining we know what others are thinking

  2. Fortune telling: Predicting the future
• Characteristics of ANTs

  • They are always negative
  • They make you feel bad about yourself
  • They are self-sabotaging
  • They are uninvited
  • They are biased
• Emotional reasoning


  Assuming that because we feel a certain way what we think must be true
• Mental Filter


  1. Only paying attention to certain types of evidence

  2. Noticing our failure, but not seeing our successes
• Labelling

  Assigning labels to ourselves or other people
• Exterminating ANTs

  1. Daily Thought Records

  2. Disputing ANTs through rational, balanced thinking
• ANTs are negatively framed interpretations of what we think is happening to us
• Over-generalizing


  Seeing a pattern based upon a single event, or being overly broad in the conclusion we draw
• Magnification


  1. Blowing things out of proportion (catastrophizing)

  2. Or inappropriately shrinking something to make it seem less important (minimization)
• Personalization


  Blaming yourself or taking responsibility for something that wasn’t completely your fault
• Should Must

  Using critical words like “should”, “Must”, or “Ought” can make us feel guilty, or like we have already failed
• Disqualifying the positive


  Discounting the good things that have happened or that you have done for some reason or another that doesn’t count
• Characteristics of ANTs

  They are always negative

  They make you feel bad about yourself.

  They are self-sabotaging

  The are uninvited

  They are biased
• Common ANTs

  All or nothing thinking

  Over-generalizing

  Mental Filter

  Disqualifying the positive

  Jumping to conclusions (mind reading & fortune telling)

  Magnification (catastrophizing & minimization)

  Emotional Reasoning

  Labelling

  Personalization