Tim Arrigo breaks down a three-step CBT technique called the 3 C's: Catch the negative thought, Check if it's actually useful, and Change it to something more realistic. Based on Aaron Beck's cognitive triangle, the method works because thoughts drive feelings and actions, so shifting one shifts everything.
Fastest way to check yourself when you're having negative thinking. The 3 C's of cognitive behavioral therapy. Number 1, catch it. Catch the thought that came before the emotion. Always remember that how you think influences how you feel, and how you feel influences how you behave. This is the cognitive triangle developed by Aaron Beck. So this is thinking influences how I feel, feeling influences what I do, what I do influences how I think. So catch the thought that came before the emotion, number 1. Number 2, right, check the thought. How helpful is the thought? Start to question what you're thinking. Start to think about what you're thinking about. We call that metacognition. And the third part is change it. Change the thought to a more healthy, more adaptive response, right? This is an opportunity for you to interject with more, right, neutral thinking. Sometimes positive thinking won't always work, so sometimes we've got to use neutral thinking. Sometimes we've got to be more rational. Sometimes we have to tap in, right, to a different way of looking at something. So catch it, check it, change it.
