Welcome to another Monday, the perfect opportunity embrace the power of positive thinking and set the tone for the week ahead. As a therapist rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), I often use Mondays as a platform to encourage a shift in our thinking, from negative to positive. Why? Because our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected. By changing one, we can influence the others. In this post, I’ll delve into the psychology behind this approach, share practical techniques like the Half Smile, and offer simple yet effective ways to set positive intentions for a rewarding week.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
The roots of my psychotherapy training and beliefs are in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Simplified, this means our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected. If we think something negatively, we will behave negatively, and we will experience negative emotions. If I am thinking, “I can’t do anything right or this week is going to suck,” I am going to feel down, frustrated, and negative. My behavior will reflect this. I may withdraw be short with others or act irritably.
The CBT theory says if we change one of these things: thoughts, behavior, or feelings will follow. If I work hard to tell myself, “I made a mistake this morning, but the rest of the day and week will be positive,” I will feel more positively, and my actions will be more positive with others and myself. Or, if I go to the gym or go for a long walk outside (behavior) this has the high potential to improve my mood and turn my thoughts to the positive.
Additional Techniques for positive thinking
There are even techniques to change your mood/feelings. I will share one DBT skill called Half Smile. The idea is to force a smile, even if it is just a half smile like the Mona Lisa. Doing this activates the start of a positive feedback loop of happiness. When we smile, we contract our smiling muscles, this causes a signal to fire back to the brain which stimulates our reward system and increases our level of endorphins (happy hormones). In other words, when our brain feels happy, we smile; when we smile, our brain feels happier. Using the Half Smile technique stimulates our happy hormones and will in turn lead to positive thoughts and a better mood.
When I talk about setting a positive intention for a good week, I am suggesting using positive affirmations, meditating on a positive week ahead, or simply telling yourself the week will be a good one. By doing this we can adjust ourselves from a negative mind set to a positive one.
With today being a Monday, my hope is that we can all find a way to work on our thoughts, behavior, and feelings to make this a positive day and week! Have a positive week!
In Kindness,
MM