Thoughts & Feelings

Thoughts & Feelings

Thoughts can sometimes give birth to feelings, as pointed out by David Burns in his book Feeling Good which explains how cognitive behavioral theory works.

If you have a negative thought, then you feel bad. If you have a positive thought, you feel good.

In my recovery I have found this to be true but it not like magic. The positive thoughts do not work instantaneously. They have to be repeated and combined with action. You have to do something different or move on to something new. You have to let time pass as you do this exercise.

I got a parking ticket one day and I felt angry. I called the city and demanded to know where the money went. They said it went to the community fund. I asked what they did with the fund. The woman on the phone rattled off a list that included the local homeless people. I like to help people so suddenly I felt good.

To sum up, optimism is a powerful tool and should be used as often as possible. It changed my life.