The document discusses three common thought patterns - catastrophizing, personalizing, and black-or-white thinking - that can lead to stress and provides strategies for addressing them. It examines scenarios of three individuals (AAAA, BBBB, CCCC) experiencing each distortion and recommends alternative thoughts. It then introduces cognitive-behavioral therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, and emotional freedom techniques as three approaches to manage stress and negative thoughts, starting with basic CBT and progressing to NLP or EFT if needed. The document promotes a stress management program from FreeMind Business Solutions that teaches these methods.

1. Managing Stress
3 damaging thought patterns
…and how to deal with them!
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2. Let’s examine a scenario!
AAAA has made a mistake with an important
customer.
He begins to feel anxious. Although he is
working on correcting the mistake, he begins to
fear that the customer will complain to his boss.
He begins to worry. Are his promotion prospects
damaged? Could he also lose his job? What will
his wife say when she hears about this?
By afternoon he is extremely worried. He is not
being able to focus on correcting the mistake.
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3. The second scenario…
BBBB passes her boss in the corridor and she
says hello.
He does not reply and walks past.
She assumes that he is angry at her for
some reason.
In a few seconds she is convinced that
something is wrong and is trying to figure out
what she has done.
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4. The third scenario …
CCCC feels that there are two types of
people in life, the successful ones
and the failures.
He’s from a premiere engineering
college and in 5 years, has
performed extremely well in his
company.
He has always wanted to work and
settle down in Europe.
Now his chance has arrived. He
totally expects to be transferred to
UK as an employee of the UK
division next month.
But then, someone else is chosen.
C is devastated. He feels that all his
dreams have fallen apart.
So, what’s wrong with their thought patterns?
How should they be thinking instead?
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5. A is ‘Catastrophising’
Catastrophising is a cognitive distortion when we take a minor negative event, and imagine all sorts of disasters resulting
from it.
The flaw: Things go wrong often. That doesn’t mean that all of them lead to disaster.
Alternative thought: Rather than thinking of what more can go wrong, A should be focusing on correcting the mistake.
B is ‘Personalizing’
We ‘Personalise’ when we interpret events as being related to us personally and overlook other factors.
The flaw: B feels that her boss not saying ‘hello’ has something to do with her personally. She is overlooking other factors
– the boss may have been thinking about something and may not even have noticed her!
Alternative thought: B needs to understand that everything that happens to her may not have anything to do with her
personally. People behave according to the situations they face, not according to what she does or does not do. Unless
there are additional signs, there isn’t sufficient reason to think that her boss is angry or upset with her.
C is carrying out ‘Black-or-white Thinking’
‘Black-or-white Thinking’ is about thinking in extremes only, with nothing in between. Either people love me or hate me; I am either a
success or a failure, etc., etc.
The flaw: Everything in life has degrees, not just a thermometer! The problem here is compounded because C has previously been
very successful. Not facing failure before, he had little trouble labelling himself as a ‘success’.
Alternative thought: C first of all needs to understand that he can’t ‘win’ every time. Even the best batsman will be out sometime!
He also needs to understand that everything in life has degrees to it, including degrees of success and failure.
BBBB
AAAA
CCCC
All three of them are going through a ‘cognitive distortion’
A ‘cognitive distortion’ is a thinking error. It’s when our emotions lead us to make incorrect
judgements about circumstances and think negatively.
It’s of course possible that there is a genuine cause for concern, but is there any concrete
evidence to believe that there is a genuine problem? We need to logically evaluate.
So, is there a tool which we can use to keep such negative thoughts in check?
Of course there is!

6. Method 1: CBT
Basic CBT is about analysing our thoughts and emotions. We ask ourselves...
"Why am I feeling this way?"; "What evidence do I have to draw this conclusion?"; "Do I really have a
problem here?"; How is this really a problem in the long run?"
FreeMind provides a desk pinup with an fun diagram of relevant questions which people can look up
anytime they are feeling negative emotions about any situation. In most cases people feel a lot better and
have a far clearer picture of the situation after they ask themselves the question in the desk pinup.
Method 2: NLP
If basic CBT doesn't work, people can quickly apply a specific NLP technique. NLP reprograms the
mind to look at the situation differently.
FreeMind teaches specific NLP tools which you can use at your desk to rapidly diffuse stress and
get back to work - all within 5 minutes!
Method 3: EFT
In rare cases the above two methods may not work. This happens when there are deeper underlying
emotional issues which are at play. EFT, being the world's most advanced method for emotional cleansing,
can do the job when nothing else can.
FreeMind teaches a quick version of EFT which people can learn within 15 minutes. Each EFT round takes
only 90 seconds. A few rounds of EFT on the core emotional issue can stop such thoughts from ever
occuring again!
STRESS MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
The three approaches below will solve different degrees of the problem. Start
with basic CBT. If the problem is more severe, apply NLP or EFT.
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7. Enjoy a stress-free job with FreeMind!
We would be happy to discuss the programme with you.
+91-9958860228
mail@freemindtraining.com
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