The ABC Technique Overcoming Pessimistic Thinking

Shreya has worked hard on a report all week. The deadline was tight, and, as she hands it over to her boss for an initial read-through, she swells proudly. She knows her boss goes to commend the standard of her work.

However, as her boss reads it, she develops a little frown. a flash later, she hands the report back to Shreya.

As she says “I think you probably did an honest job”. “If you’ll just rework section two and add the figures I sent over last night, this may be able to present to the board.”

Shreya heads back to her office, she was crushed. As she worked so hard, and her boss thinks the report is lousy. Soon she adds the new figures with a sinking heart, wondering how long it’ll be before she’s demoted or fired. For the remaining day, she can’t get the image of her boss’s frown out of her mind. Her mood was off, she’s listless, and her work suffers. She even misses a purchase with a key client, because she’s not on her game.

Shreya is blowing things answer of proportion. thereupon pessimistic outlook, she has assumed the worst and has turned a little setback into a disaster.

What about you? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Or would you’ve got reacted within the same way as Shreya?

Optimists are proven to be healthier, more productive, happier, and more successful than pessimists. there’s excellent news that optimism may be a skill –which you’ll find out how to be more optimistic. during this blog, we’ll show you ways to use the ABC Technique to develop an optimistic outlook.

WHAT’S IN IT

Introduction to the Technique

This approach was created by psychologist, DR. Albert Ellis. it had been then adopted by DR. Martin Seligman, a University of Pennsylvania professor and past president of the American Psychological Association. Seligman’s adapted version was published in his 1990 book, “Learned Optimism.”

ABC stands for:

• Adversity.
• Beliefs.
• Consequences.

In short, we encounter an Adversity event (or, an Activating Event, as per Ellis’s original model). How we expect this creates Beliefs( or thought processes). These beliefs then influence what we do next so that they become Consequences( or reactions).

Here’s an example – you yell at your junior because he forgot to print a crucial report before your meeting (Adversity). You then think, “I’m a lousy Senior” (Belief). You then perform poorly during your meeting, because your self-confidence has plummeted (Consequences).

The important point occurs between adversity and belief. once you encounter adversity, how you tend to elucidate it to yourself directly impacts your thought process and your relationships. Seligman calls this your “explanatory style,” and he says that it’s a habit that influences your entire outlook on life.

There are three dimensions to your explanatory style:

1. Permanence

Pessimistic people unconsciously assume that the causes of bad events are permanent, while optimists believe that bad events are temporary.

For instance, imagine you had a nasty day and had no time to assist a lover who needed your expertise. A pessimist might think, “I should never be friends with anyone at work because I’m a terrible friend.” An optimist might think, “I was a terrible friend today.”

The difference is subtle, but it matters for your outlook!

2. Pervasiveness

Pessimists make a universal statement about their lives when something goes wrong, while optimists make their statements.

For instance, a pessimist might think, “All my work is useless.” On the opposite hand, an optimist might think, “This work was useless.”

Again, the difference is that the thought process. Pessimists take one negative event and permit it to show their entire work, or life, into a catastrophe. Optimists recognize that they could have failed in one area, but they do not allow that failure to overwhelm other parts of their lives.

3. Personalization

When we experience a negative event, we’ve two ways to believe it. we will blame something outside ourselves (externalizing it). Or, we will blame ourselves for the event (internalizing it).

Pessimists often internalize blame. They think, “This is all my fault,” or “I’m too dumb to try to do this job.” Optimists have higher self-esteem because they tend to externalize blame, thinking, “This is all somebody else fault,” or “I haven’t learned enough about this skill yet; that’s why I’m not doing well at this task.”

Example

Adversity: A colleague criticized my idea ahead of the boss during our weekly meeting.

Belief: He’s right; it had been a dumb idea. I do not have much of an imagination, and now the boss thinks that how unprofessional I’m. I should never have spoken up!

Consequences: I felt stupid and didn’t speak up for the reminder of the meeting. I do not want to ascertain any of my colleagues or the boss in the week and have already made an excuse to avoid tomorrow’s all the meetings.

Analyse Results

Once you’ve written down several ABC situations, take a glance at what you’ve got found.

Here, you would like to seem for patterns in your thinking, specifically, how any broad beliefs have led to specific consequences.

To be optimistic, you would like to vary your thought process for various situations. This, in turn, results in more positive consequences.

Use Distraction and Disputation

As you’ll see, the beliefs you develop after encountering adversity play a serious role in your life and determine whether you are a pessimistic or an optimistic thinker. This makes it important to manage negative ABC patterns.

There are two ways to override these: distraction and disputation.

Disputation

Think of Disputation as a “D” after ABC.

To dispute your negative mistaken thoughts and beliefs, you argue with yourself rationally. Especially, your search for the assumptions about your explanatory style that we talked about earlier.

We’ll use the previous example, for instance, this system, below.

Adversity: A colleague criticized my idea ahead of the team during our weekly meeting.

Belief: He’s right; it had been a dumb idea. I do not have much of an imagination, and now the whole team can see how uncreative I’m. I should never have spoken up!

Consequences: I felt stupid and didn’t speak up for the reminder of the meeting. I do not want to attend any of the opposite team meetings today and have already made an excuse to avoid tomorrow’s meetings.

Disputation: I’m blowing this out of proportion. My colleague had every right to criticize my idea; it had been nothing personal, and her critique was spot on. He even commended my creativity once the meeting was over. All I want to try to do is think my ideas through a touch better next time.

Distraction

Although disputation is beneficial for interrupting negative thinking, a more temporary solution is to distract them.

If you would like to interrupt your negative thoughts, you would like to distract yourself. Simply telling yourself “not to think negatively” isn’t getting to work: you would like to interrupt the cycle.

To do this, try distracting yourself once you start creating negative beliefs.

For example, you’ll pinch yourself or wear an elastic band around your wrist. After you’ve skilled a stressful situation, and once you begin to formulate negative thoughts and beliefs, as a result, snap the elastic band against your skin or simply pinch at the instant. This physical sting will remind you to exit the cycle of negative thinking.

Once you’ve interrupted your negative thoughts, you would like to shift your attention elsewhere. Concentrate intently on something else for a moment.

Important points

The ABC Technique is an approach developed by Albert Ellis and adapted by Martin Seligman to assist us to think more optimistically.

The technique is predicated on our explanatory style. That is, how we explain difficult or stressful situations to ourselves, across dimensions of permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization. These thoughts directly impact what we believe about the event, ourselves, and therefore the world at large.

The Technique pushes you to research three aspects of a situation:

1. Adversity.

2. Beliefs.

3. Consequences.

Whenever you encounter adversity you develop thoughts and beliefs about things. This, in turn, results in consequences.

To be optimistic, you want to change what you think about yourself, and therefore the situation once you encounter adversity. Positive beliefs will, in turn, cause more positive consequences, and a more positive outlook.

Conclusion

Start replacing the negativity in your surroundings and life, ways to use the ABC Technique to develop an optimistic outlook.

ABC stands for:

• Adversity.

• Beliefs.
• Consequences,

 In which adversity is an activating event, beliefs are a thought process and consequences are a result.

You would like to vary your thought process for various situations. This results in more positive consequences.

There are two ways to override negative ABC patterns distraction and disputation.

dispute your negative mistaken thoughts and beliefs and if you want to interrupt your negative thoughts, you would like to distract yourself.

Also you can read our blog on 10 Ways to Stay Calm During in Crisis

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