The “C” in CBT

CBT: Why Our Thoughts Matter

CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. As the name suggests, it’s about how our cognitions (our thoughts) and behaviors (our actions) influence each other.

This article focuses on the “thinking” part—our cognitions—and why they’re so important.

Automatic Thoughts

Cognitions is just a clinical name for the stuff that runs through our head, the thoughts we have everyday all the time. There have actually been studies about how many individual thoughts a person has in any given day.

Wait for it, that we have roughly 80,000 thoughts per day! So our minds are running all the time. Most of these thoughts are what therapists would call automatic thoughts—thoughts that seemingly pop into existence out of no where and for no apparent reason. Usually we simply ignore them but occasionally if the thought is about something important to us we may focus on it.

We focus on some thought and not others because some of there seeming significance to us. For example, you may be driving down a winding mountain road and suddenly you start picturing yourself driving the car off the side of a cliff. Like most of us, you’ll probably chuckle to yourself and promptly forget it. But if you have had a deep fear of hurting yourself from childhood, the thought might not go away so easily and this might start a thought train where one thought leads to another and so on.

Intermediate Beliefs

Sometimes these thought trains might reveal the next layer of thinking: Intermediate Beliefs. So this thought train leads to the thought that “it’s bad to be thinking about driving my car off the road” They are often characterized by a sense of following rules or guidelines about specific situations. These ones most definitely care emotional wait. Thoughts that start with: Should, Could, Ought, and Must then is is most likely an intermediate belief.

Core Beliefs

Surprise Surprise, intermediate thoughts stem from even deeper thoughts. You may have heard of these as well and we call them core beliefs. Core beliefs are central for how we view ourselves and the world. It is the only way that we can make sense of the world. They are extremely hard to change or alter and they develop early in our childhood.

My favorite analogy is to think of wet cement. Core beliefs are like hardened concrete, intermediate beliefs are like soft concrete becoming harder, and automatic thoughts are like concrete just getting mixed together. The deeper you go, the more we are set in our ways.

Why Does this any of this matter

The truth is, our thoughts have a powerful influence on both our emotions and our choices. For example, if someone pulls out in front of you while you're driving, you might experience a range of emotions depending on what you’re thinking in that moment.

If your thought is, “What a jerk—so inconsiderate!” you’ll likely feel angry and might even respond by speeding up or driving aggressively. But if your thought is, “They must be in a hurry—I hope everything’s okay,” your emotional response will be very different—perhaps more calm or concerned.

Notice that the situation hasn’t changed, only your interpretation of it. Yet that change in thinking leads to a different emotional and behavioral outcome.

Many of us like to believe that we’re rational and make decisions based on evidence and logic. But the reality is, most of the time, our thoughts—not facts—drive how we feel and act.

The hard truth

The reality is that many of our decisions and emotions are more rooted in our core beliefs and assumptions then they are in the facts about a particular situation. Know this can help us approach situations with more open minds and get creative with problems instead of reliving the same mistakes over and over again.

For now, it can be helpful just to notice that you are having thoughts at all and that these thoughts are not necessarily true. A favorite reframe of CBT therapists: Just because I think something, doesn’t mean its true.