Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and The Work are based upon the understanding that the world is what we perceive it to be. In other words, it is our thoughts about external things, like people or events, that cause our feelings and behaviors. The goal in both methods is to identify thoughts that are causing suffering. When we find that what we thought about something may not be true, and that a different thought, may be more true, our feelings change as a result of the new perspective. This gives us new choices about how we want to act and allows for an immediate experience of the power of our beliefs. We gain the deep insight that with a stressful thought we suffer and without it we do not suffer. CBT and The Work help people of all ages with a wide variety of presenting symptoms, from the simplest to the most complex and chronic. These methods teach us to look at our thoughts as hypotheses that can be questioned or tested. A thought is harmless unless we believe it. Many people think that they are what their thoughts tell them they are, because many people have not been taught how the mind works. Remember to be gentle, you are not your thoughts, even though it may seem this way sometimes. There is a part of you that can observe and question your thoughts. Using CBT and The Work this awareness expands. An open mind is a happy mind.
