A thought record has traditionally been used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a means to assess how our thoughts impact the way we act and feel. Here, we will take it a step deeper and look into the interplay between our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and connections after an activating or stressful situation or experience so that we can better understand how our reactions developed and find entry points to shift our response.

When to use it:

When you find yourself at the end of a falling set of dominoes wondering how you got here. You feel stuck in your thoughts, overrun by your emotions, and reactive which means acting out of emotion or distress. You may feel like you are quick on the attack or as though your whole world has coming crashing down in one moment.

In particular, I recommend using this when a situation, interaction or experience kicks off a cascade of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that leave you feeling unsettled, distressed , angry or resentful. These experiences can be from our past, present or future.

Examples may include:

• An interaction with someone that leaves you feeling unsettled; Someone may have said something hurtful or you feel uncomfortable or awkward in the interaction.

• Thinking about an interaction that went poorly or where you upset someone or let them down.

• Ruminating on a mistake, failure or misstep - real or perceived.

• Worrying about a future event such as a work review, death of a loved one, or possible rejection

• Being around something or someone that triggers a shame or anxiety response. This could include high stress events, get togethers with people who you are not comfortable with or don't feel safe being around, or being in environments that you associate poor experiences or unhelpful coping mechanisms with (ex. being around a lot of people smoking in a place you used to smoke a lot when you are trying to quit)

Note the images are a selection of the full 17-page document.