Stress Stop The Thinking Persons Stress Management Workbook

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• Cognitive restructuring is a powerful method for managing stress that can prove useful in a variety of different situations, especially at work. The term cognitive refers to your thinking and the term restructuring refers to change. So in this context the term cognitive restructuring means: changing the way you think about stress.
• Most people blame events and circumstances for their stress never realizing that its their thoughts and beliefs about a stressful event that are the true source of their distress. For example, if you were to get a flat tire on the way to work, you naturally blame the flat for the stress you were experiencing. But if you look below the surface you find certain thoughts and beliefs that you have about this incident that are making your situation worse. For example, you might be saying to yourself: Why does this stuff always happen to me? Or, this is the worst possible time for this to happen. Or, now never get to work on time. Yes the flat may have triggered your self-talk, but often times these thoughts are exaggerated, muddled, overly negative, and irrational and based only on a kernel of truth. Learning how to monitor and change this kind of thinking is the goal of cognitive restructuring (and of course this workbook). Cognitive restructuring also helps you short-circuit stressful emotions like anger, frustration and anxiety. To quote a recent article in the New York Times:The one workplace stress-reduction technique that seems to out-perform all others is cognitive restructuring.