The CBT Tool Set For Self Love: What's Love Got To Do With It? (Part 2)

Experience gained from a 30+ year practice  as a cognitive-behavioral psychologist shows that with the right tools people readily learn to elevate and maintain emotional well-being and happiness.  At the Think Right Feel Right Blogoscope you will find the behavioral tools and techniques that help to ward off anxiety, depression and addiction. You will learn about ways to defeat troubling emotions such as anger, worry and sadness. You will also find practical strategies for increasing self-esteem, positivity and for being a happier you.

Fixing Intrinsic Self-Esteem.  In yesterday's post, I heralded the importance of self love for mental health and happiness. Self-love is the mainstay for emotional health.  Many walk the planet without nearly enough self-esteem and pay a heavy price for doing so. Because self love and self-esteem are so vital to emotional health, I discuss these topics in depth in Think Right, Feel Right.  Today, I want to suggest a good starting point for improving self love or intrinsic self-esteem: the corrective cognition.

I use the term, corrective cognition,  to refer to a new thought or belief that is designed to correct the way we think, feel, and behave. For example, if I worry about taking tests, a corrective cognition might be, "No sense worrying about it.  I will prepare for the test and just do the best I can."  Since self-love, self-esteem, and self-nurturance are all rooted in thought, you can use corrective cognitions to change and improve the way you think about them and thereby elevate your self-worth, self-esteem and  inclination to be more self-nurturing.

An example of a corrective cognition for self love is: "I am fully committed to deeply love myself, unconditionally, forever." This thought may sound strange.  It does sound strange to those who are not accustomed to thinking about themselves in this way. However, this new way of thinking has helped to inflate thousands of emotional flat tires!

Corrective cognitions only work if we use them.  If we drop the ball, and do not give ourselves the chance to endorse the new corrective cognition, we lose out on our hopes for change.  As a remedy for this problem, I developed something I call a six-step plan.  The six-step plan encourages proper follow through and promotes successful change.  I will discuss this concept in a future post. Remember to stay tuned to #ThinkRightFeelRight for more practical #self-help