What Is Cognitive Reframing?
Thanks to our upbringing, cultural conditioning, societal influences, and other factors, we all make sense of our lives, environments, and relationships through a certain, specific lens. Whether we’re aware of them or not, these mental frameworks can impact how we interpret things—for better or for worse. When we or a mental health professional notice that some of our mental frameworks may be causing us distress, cognitive reframing can help us consciously shift them to more helpful alternatives.
Cognitive reframing: Shifting negative thinking to more helpful thoughts
Though many don’t realize it, our thoughts often follow certain patterns that help us interpret the world around us. Because these mental frameworks are the lens through which we see virtually everything, it’s easy to understand how they can have a large impact on our behavior. If these patterns are warped or based on false conclusions or beliefs, we might experience maladaptive feelings and behaviors, like increased stress or anger, as well as symptoms of mental health disorders like anxiety or depression.
What is cognitive reframing?
That’s where cognitive reframing comes in. It’s the process of shifting your perspective by replacing negative or flawed thought patterns with more realistic and positive ones, which can help with stress management and improve your mood, mental health, and overall well-being.
Cognitive reframing involves several key steps to help you shift your perspective:
- Identify negative thoughts: Recognize when you're having unhelpful or distorted thoughts.
- Challenge these thoughts: Question the validity and accuracy of these negative thoughts.
- Replace with positive alternatives: Substitute negative thoughts with more balanced and realistic ones.
- Practice regularly: Consistently apply cognitive reframing techniques to strengthen new thought patterns.
- Seek support: Work with a therapist to effectively implement cognitive reframing strategies.
Awareness of your thinking patterns
What are cognitive distortions?
Cognitive distortions are thought patterns that are often flawed or irrational, and are usually damaging or unhelpful. There are over a dozen common cognitive distortions that people may experience, which can be the cause of negative emotions and behaviors.
Experiencing cognitive distortions
While anyone can experience cognitive distortions, they are especially correlated with certain mental health conditions like depression, social anxiety disorder, and eating disorders.
Getting familiar with reframing cognitive distortions
Learning to recognize and name these distortions when they come up is the first step to shifting them toward something more helpful through the practice of cognitive reframing. Here are a few of the most common ones.
All-or-nothing thinking
We engage in all-or-nothing thinking when we imagine that there are only two possible outcomes of a situation: incredible or terrible. In reality, few situations in life are all bad or all good, or represent complete success or total failure, even when we’re faced with negative outcomes. There’s typically a lot of nuance in between the two ends of the spectrum, which we can miss out on when employing this cognitive distortion. An example of this distortion would be a student getting a lower grade than they expected on one test and seeing their complete academic career as a failure.
Overgeneralization
Overgeneralization happens when we take information from one situation and apply it to all similar situations in the future, assuming they’ll go the same way. It can lead us to close ourselves off to new opportunities, because we’ve already decided that they’ll go poorly. An example of this distortion would be a person whose first date didn’t go well assuming that they’re bad at dating, or that there are no good people out there, or that they’ll never find a partner because they're destined to be alone forever.
Mind-reading: Mostly negative thoughts
Mind-reading, which can often be found in those with social anxiety, involves making assumptions about what someone else is thinking—usually negative ones—especially with little or no evidence. It’s a thought pattern that makes us interpret even the smallest signals or cues as something negative toward us. An example of this distortion would be someone feeling like the person they’re at lunch with is bored and wants to leave because they aren’t talking much, when there might be many other explanations—they could simply be trying to be a good listener, tired from work, or any number of other things.
Mental filtering
This distortion is all about what you notice most or fixate on in a situation. Some individuals are in a loop of negative counterfactual thinking, preoccupied with past events that they can no longer control. When engaging in negative mental filtering, you might focus on only the bad elements of something and completely disregard the good. This distortion can be unhelpful or even harmful because it gives you a lopsided, unrealistic view of how things really are. An example of this distortion would be forgetting about a work deadline, leading to the belief that you’re bad at your job, you’re a mess, and you always do this. In reality, this negative self talk means you’re ignoring all the positive things you have accomplished: deadlines that you did remember and meet in the past without any trouble, and all the times at work you’ve been praised by your boss and colleagues.
Cognitive Reframing: Putting it in practice for your mental health
Cognitive reframing is the practice of consciously changing the way you view events, memories, people, and situations. Its effectiveness is well-documented; a 2019 study found that using cognitive reframing helped participants manage and reduce negative thoughts.
You can start working on cognitive reframing of your own negative thoughts, though it can be helpful to have a strong support system as you navigate this process. Additionally, a licensed professional, whether a social worker, an adult psychiatrist, or a therapist, like those at BetterHelp, can provide valuable guidance and support. Studies have found that those who practice “self-directed CBT” can experience moderate improvement in their symptoms and overall mental health. It may be a good starting point if you want to learn about the techniques before meeting with a therapist.
To get started with cognitive reframing, you can become familiar with the key cognitive distortions and how they may manifest. It’s often an important step in learning to recognize when they’re occurring in you. Next, cultivating a mindfulness practice can help you start noticing your thoughts more in general—the positive thoughts as well as the negative ones. If you’re not aware of unhelpful or irrational thoughts, it’s essentially impossible to adjust them. Keeping a thought journal can also help you develop an awareness of these distortions, allowing you to practice noticing when they arise, questioning their validity, and taking steps to reframe them if you deem them to be untrue or unhelpful. It can also help you track which ones are the most pervasive in your mindset, so you know what to focus most on when doing cognitive reframing.
Getting outside support: Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular, just like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), is a method of talk therapy that has been proven to be effective in addressing a wide range of mental health disorders. It’s especially helpful for those that can arise from, or be intensified by, negative thought patterns like cognitive distortions. It’s predicated on identifying unhelpful thought patterns that cause unhelpful feelings or behaviors—in other words, it relies on cognitive reframing as a key tenet.
Often, in an individual therapy setting, a therapist asks questions about common thought patterns you experience and helps you find constructive ways to reframe them. Research suggests that this therapeutic style is also effective when administered to patients virtually. If you’re interested in trying out online therapy, you can get matched with a licensed mental health professional through a platform like BetterHelp. You can meet with them via phone, video call, and/or online chat to address any of the challenges you may be facing. They can help you learn to notice your thoughts, identify distortions, and practice restructuring for better emotional and behavioral outcomes.
Takeaway
Cognitive reframing, sometimes called cognitive restructuring, is a powerful technique that can change the way you see yourself and the world. It is typically used during cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which involves identifying negative thinking patterns and replacing that type of thinking with more accurate, positive thoughts. Cognitive therapy may help people who are experiencing depression and anxiety by helping them recognize any cognitive distortions they may be experiencing.
If you’re interested exploring cognitive reframing, consider speaking with a licensed therapist. They may be able to help you evaluate any negative experiences you’re facing through a different perspective. With BetterHelp, you can be matched with a therapist who has experience helping people reframe their thoughts. Take the first step and reach out to BetterHelp today.
What is the goal of cognitive reframing or cognitive restructuring?
Cognitive reframing is a technique that helps you shift your perspective and stop you from jumping to conclusions based on common cognitive distortions. Unlike cognitive restructuring, which is done under the supervision and guidance of a licensed therapist, cognitive reframing is a strategy you can use on your own to shift your perspective, which can in turn alter your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Is cognitive reframing a coping skill?
Cognitive reframing is a tool that can help shift your perspective. For example, if you typically think about worst-case-scenarios, cognitive reframing can help you recognize that your fears are not necessarily an accurate depiction of reality and encourage you to consider the best-case-scenarios or most likely outcomes.
Healthy coping skills, like practicing regular physical activity, practicing positive self-talk, or meditating, are not the same thing as cognitive reframing, but they can all be part of a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral therapy plan.
What are cognitive reframing exercises?
Cognitive reframing exercises are evidence-based strategies you can use to recognize and challenge common cognitive distortions. These strategies include:
- Socratic questioning: This method of asking yourself questions about the accuracy, evidence, and interpretation of your beliefs and thoughts can challenge distortions.
- Thought records: Recording your irrational thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can help you identify unhelpful, distorted thought patterns.
- Guided imagery: By using a podcast, app, or other form of audio meditation, you can walk through imagery that arises from your thoughts and feelings. This exploration can help you find meaning in imagery and practice restructuring the beliefs you apply to it.
- “What if” decatastrophizing: Consider the following: If the worst-case scenario were to come true, how would you manage it? Would it really ruin your life? How likely is this outcome?
How do you use reframing techniques?
There are several strategies you can use to recognize, challenge, and reframe distorted thoughts. First, you’ll need to work to recognize and spot unproductive thoughts (such as always anticipating the worst-case scenario, ignoring positive outcomes, or engaging in black-and-white thinking). Then, you’ll will likely need to practice reflecting on the accuracy of your automatic thoughts. Finally, you will want to change distorted thoughts into more neutral or positive thoughts.
How to reframe a stressful situation?
Most people navigate stressful life events from time-to-time. Reframing strategies can make stressors more manageable and give us a greater sense of control and comfort when they arise.
To reframe stressors, first it’s important to learn how to recognize distorted thoughts that arise during stressful situations. To do this, identify the signs of toxic stress (such as elevated heart rate, trouble sleeping, or digestive issues), and when they occur. Then, you’ll need to challenge and eventually reframe your thoughts to more neutral or positive ones (i.e. looking at a presentation as an opportunity to succeed rather than an opportunity to fail).
How to change or reframe negative thinking to positive?
There are several types of therapy that can help you change negative thoughts into more positive ones. Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, utilizes cognitive restructuring to help clients reshape the way they view situations. When done without the help of a therapist, this process is called “cognitive reframing,” and it can help you view the world through a more positive light.
How to reframe thinking for work?
Many people think of their work as something that must do to afford to do the things we want to do. To reframe your thinking about work, you can spend time identifying what drives you or gives you purpose. Then, when you encounter negative thoughts about work, reframe it to consider how it benefits you or gives you purpose.
For example, if you work as a nurse and find that helping others gives you a sense of purpose and fulfillment, you might consider how going to work in the middle of the night allows you to be there for your patients when their family members can’t be.
How do I stop overthinking through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can teach you many techniques to reduce stress and overthinking. For example, therapists often teach their clients how to incorporate healthy coping strategies like exercise, making to-do lists, meditation, deep-breathing, or boundary-setting into their lives.
How can you remove all negativity from your life and help your mental health?
While you may not be able to entirely eliminate negativity in your life, you can use cognitive reframing strategies to replace negative, distorted thought patterns with more neutral or positive ones. You can do this by noticing your thoughts, acknowledging that they’re distorted, and then shifting your perspective.
How do you reassure an overthinker?
While many people may be tempted to tell an overthinker that there’s nothing to worry about, this can disregard and invalidate their feelings. Instead, it’s a good idea to acknowledge that they’re experiencing anxiety, tell them that their feelings are valid, and offer a listening ear for their concerns.
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