Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Summer Series, Goals and identifying situations the cause emotional discomfort

 I've been listening to a Great Courses on CBT.  I have listened to about 8 classes and have found the info very practical but I need to take the next step and put some of the strategies into practice.  My plan is to use these strategies as my material for journaling this summer.  

[My main reason for doing this is to try to get more emotionally healthy and for Susie to gain love and respect for me again.  I want to be in a relationship, and it would be great if I could be in a relationship with her.  I want to have a steady companion and right now I don't have one.  However, there is no guarantee that she's ever going to want that so I think my focus should really be to just live my best life now instead of trying to force a relationship that I frankly don't want except to gain respect and companionship from her.  Not a bad goal, but I feel like I should need that from her to feel like a complete person.]

So, here we go with class 2.  I will consider my goals for this process.  I will identify specific examples of situations or anecdotes of where I fell emotional discomfort.  

My goals for this process:

- feel more like i'm a part of a group in my church setting

- feel more like i'm part of a group in my work setting

- be better able to share humor with people

- have less shame toward myself

- feel like I have a purpose for my life, like my life is significant and it matters

Situations where I feel emotional discomfort:

- walking out of the school building by teachers who are socializing

- going into church and sitting by myself instead of with my family

- bringing up difficult topics of conversation with others, especially with Susie or my parents, anyone who I am close to

- going to sex, alcohol, entertainment, etc., when I am feeling depressed


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