Therapy Resources

Conducting a Cost-Benefit Analysis is an essential tool of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It’s a good way to identify the pros and cons associated with keeping a particular coping strategy (“holding on to my current belief”) versus using an adaptive coping strategy (“adopting a new belief”).

When it comes to making decisions, there’s perhaps nowhere more important to make the right one than in space. When you’re cruising above Earth, a bad decision can have some pretty hefty consequences. We can leverage this approach to our own personal lives so that we don’t “make things worse by guessing,” especially in a crisis.

When we can describe our emotions, we have a perception of control. Otherwise, we end up acting-out, or “behaving”, our emotions. The goal is to give ourselves a better emotional vocabulary. Pinning an emotion with a name work because once you have a name for it, it doesn’t become so overwhelming. You actually get off the emotion rollercoaster ride and you look at it rather than being in it and it becomes much easier to figure out why you’re feeling it. The pressure actually starts to go away.

The first step in not being a victim in life is to really examine yourself and your behaviors so you can make a “to-do” list about what to keep and build on, what to eliminate and what to acquire in terms of life skills and strategies. Remember: You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.

Having an idea of what you essentially want to change is a good start. However, identifying the actual, concrete steps towards change will make all the difference in your life. It will also give you an “escape hatch” should things go askew.

Finally, setting realistic short-term behavior goals can help you achieve your long-term plans. To do this effectively, you must be aware of the critical difference between having dreams vs. having goals. Dreams are vague, non-specific and and often lead to frustration and setbacks; goals are something entirely different. These are called SMART plans.

Every time we use events as evidence to support our core beliefs, we strengthen those belief. This becomes a problem when we fail to process any positive data that is contrary to a core belief that is dysfunctional. We confuse our assumptions with our core beliefs. Knowing what is, and isn’t, a dysfunctional core belief can help.