Costs & Benefits Transaction [Extract from CBT4T content]
Use the worksheets downloadable in the course content BEFORE attempting to use the electronic Costs & Benefits Transaction. It will help you when you first start. Once you have worked with two or three of them manually, and you are confident in how you are using them, or are ready for some feedback, I look forward to seeing your C & B Transactions arrive over the coming weeks
Costs
Costs as in emotional cost, what the feelings you experience cost you - they have an impact of how you are and what you are able to do
Item 1: Think about how you feel today. Common examples might include:
- Frightened/scared/terrified
- Angry
- Despairing/desperate
- Worried
- Frustrated
- Useless
- Depressed
You won’t need to spend long on this, as you know instinctively how you feel!
- You don't have to use single words as I have done in the list of example feelings, although doing so can help you to better target how you feel
- Feelings/emotions are rarely experienced independently of others, so expect there to be multiple feelings/emotions
Item 2: Which of the feelings/emotions is the STRONGEST?
Some feelings and emotions are stronger than others. The strongest of them is the most noticeable, the most persistent
Item 3: What causes you to feel like this? (Problem Perspective)
Consider what it is that causes you to feel this way. What do you blame? Take note of how you express (say and think) emotionally, hardening your stance against the perceived problem
Benefits
Making use of 'psychological flexibility', allow your thinking to open up alternative possibilities. For example, has there been a tendency to judge quickly? If so, being aware of the tendency, when you catch yourself judging (usually in favour of worst case scenario), could your thinking be more balanced? Changing our perspective doesn't happen from 100% to zero straightaway or even quickly, due to the way we have trained our neural networking to operate automatically
Item 4: How might you view the Problem Perspective differently by using a Recovery Perspective?
It can be helpful, particularly when you sense intransigence, even defiance against any possibility of there being an alternative perspective to take account of, to use imagination as a tool to prospect for alternatives. There is reward for persisting - keep in mind what you learned from Second Arrow Suffering
Cost & Benefits Transaction Example 1
Costs & Benefits Example 2
