One-Liners to Help Your Thoughts Go Up!

Some Basic RI (Recovery, International) CBT Tools

These one-liners saved my life.  Choose your favorites and keep them nearby.

• ·     Endorse yourself like an ever-flowing stream. (This is HUGE!)
•       Endorse yourself for the effort, and not the outcome. (This is a big one!!!)
•    We need to treat our mental health as a business, and not a game.
• ·        Helplessness is NOT hopelessness.
• ·        Humor is our best friend, temper (judging self and others) is our worst enemy.  A sense of humor is a strong antidote against fear.
• ·        If you can’t change a situation, you can change your attitude towards it.
• ·        Be self-led, not symptom-led.
• ·        “Averageness” aka “Universality” means if it has happened to one other person, you are not alone, and you’re not unusual—there’s hope for you.
• ·        Nervous symptoms and sensations are distressing, but not dangerous.
• ·        Temper (judgment) is usually blindness to the other side of the story.
• ·        Comfort is a want, not a need. (We can act our way into right thinking.)
• ·        There is no right or wrong in the trivialities of daily life.
• ·        Calm begets calm, temper begets temper.
• ·        Don’t take “our own Dear Selves” too seriously.
• ·        Feelings should be expressed (to understanding parties), and temper suppressed.
• ·        Some people have a passion for self-distrust.
• ·        Temper (judgments, or “shoulds”) maintains and intensifies symptoms.
• ·        Do things in part acts.
• ·        Have the courage to make a mistake.  It takes courage to make a mistake.
• ·        Feelings aren’t facts.
• ·        Do the things you fear and hate to do. 
• ·        Fear is a belief—and beliefs can be changed.
• ·        Every act of self-control brings a measure of self-respect.
• ·        Decide, plan and act.
• ·        When you’re in duality, any decision will help steady you.
• ·        Anticipation is often worse than the realization.
• ·        With racing thoughts, replace an insecure thought with a secure thought.
• ·        Bear the discomfort, and comfort will come.
• ·        Self-appointed expectations lead to self-induced frustrations.
• ·        We must manage our expectations (we usually need to lower them.)
• ·        People do things that annoy us, not to annoy us.
• ·        Knowledge tells you what to do, practice tells you how to do it.
• ·        Muscles can be commanded to do what one fears to do. (The muscular system and The Will can override the central nervous system!)
• ·        Your muscles can re-train your brain (this has been scientifically proven.)
• ·        Tempers are frequently uncontrolled, but not uncontrollable.
• ·        Temper tends to block logic.
• ·        Objectivity terminates panic.
• ·        Concept of Exceptionality (either I'm the worst, the sickest, beyond God's love, etc.)
• ·        Wanting to be exceptional, but afraid you aren’t even average.