cialis useful site I’m writing this at 7:00 am, in my office. I left for work this morning in an autopilot haze, thinking I had a 7:00 am appointment as I usually do on Fridays, and not bothering to check my schedule.

Oops.

My first reaction was annoyance at myself. OK, maybe a little more than annoyance. I felt myself sinking into a full-blown funk. Being an experienced cognitive-behavioral therapist, I had no trouble capturing the negative thoughts fueling the feelings:

“That was really stupid!”

“You could have slept for another half hour.”

“Or you could have gotten up and walked the dogs. It’ll be too hot for a long walk when you get home, and you won’t get any exercise.”

“You don’t get enough exercise. You’re really out of shape.”

“Now you’ll be really tired all day when you could have felt rested.”

“You should always look at your calendar.”

If you’re familiar with the CBT model and its concept of thinking errors—characteristic patterns of distorted thinking associated with negative moods—you’ll recognize a few in my litany of self-flagellating thoughts: labeling, fortune-telling, all-or-nothing thinking, should statements.

Fortunately, I saw immediately that I had a choice. I could either allow myself to wallow, which would undoubtedly make the rest of my day difficult, or I could do something about it.

I chose action.

Now it’s only 7:30 am, and I’m just about done writing a long-overdue blog post. And my mood has taken a 180. I’m no longer upset. Instead, I feel pleased with myself for seizing an opportunity to be productive.

One of the complaints I often hear about CBT thought-challenging techniques (uncovering distorted thoughts and replacing them with more rational ones) is that “just thinking” differently isn’t enough to produce a change in mood. And that certainly is true. Rewriting your thoughts won’t have much impact unless you also change your behavior

It’s 7:50 am, and I’m still tired. But a little more coffee should take care of the brain fog. And now I can look forward to a relaxing holiday weekend with no pressure to write!