If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
– Jack Kornfield
Self-critical thoughts can leave us feeling defeated before we even try to put ourselves out there. This is a common experience among adolescents, but thankfully, there’s a way to change your thinking. This lesson draws on a simple framework that is the basis of many Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practices and will help support young people as they learn more about the way their thoughts and feelings interact. We also introduce students to the concept of cognitive distortion, and the types of cognitive distortions that are most common. Students will learn to…
In this lesson, we want to help students identify and reshape thoughts that are causing them difficulty, such as: negative thoughts about their appearance, critical thoughts about their abilities, or worrisome thoughts about their future. Students will reshape these thoughts into more confident, accurate statements.
· Understand the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
· Learn a technique for examining and reshaping inaccurate thoughts.
Prior to teaching this lesson, watch the featured videos and choose if you would like to share any of the additional videos with your students. Then, write a found poem that you will share with your students.
Ensure that each student is provided with two of the same printed texts for the foundation of the poem and pens or markers. Additionally, students have the option to select their own text to use for the found poem. If you prefer to do this lesson digitally, ensure that every student has access to technology that will allow them to create their found poem on their device.
Bryan Cranston shares the way he learned to reframe negative self-critical thoughts when he was auditioning for roles at the start of his career.
Dr. Nina Vasan describes the relationship between emotions, thoughts and behaviors. She uses the example of feeling insecure about her body to illustrate this idea.
Dani Silva describes her life-long struggle with feeling insecure about her body and the way writing poetry finally allowed her to feel heard and understood for the first time.
Paige shares a found poem she created that reframes catastrophizing thoughts about not doing well in school.
Eliza shares a found poem she wrote about the thought that she is a burden to her friends, and the transformation of that thought into an understanding that her friends genuinely care about her.
Display the ‘welcome slide’ from the Lesson 8 PowerPoint as you begin.
*Slide 1
As discussed in the teacher training, remember to make the suggested language below authentic to yourself and meaningful for your students.
* Slide 2
In this lesson, we are discussing a new way to think about emotions – as feelings tied to thoughts. Introduce a video from an expert in mental health who will talk more about the way emotions are connected to thoughts.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Today, we are going to look at emotions in a new way. This lesson explores the way our thoughts are connected to and influence our feelings. These thoughts can be about ourselves or about those around us. This is a different way to think about emotions, so it requires a little bit of reflection. I am going to let someone who is an expert in this technique explain this idea and share their approach.”
The expert introduces the framework behind Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the concept of cognitive distortions. The expert shares an example of a specific thought that was upsetting in her life, and the way she was able to question if it was true.
Reflect on the way the expert modeled a process for checking to see if critical thoughts are accurate. Share an example from your life of a thought that turned out to be inaccurate, and the way you revised this thought.
Example of What You Could Say:
“The expert described the way she has learned to reframe critical thoughts. She has learned to take a step back, identify these feelings, and ask herself if they’re accurate. Then she tries to choose a different thought that is less distorted and more accurate. I have my own example from my life to share. A thought that I used to think is… but I changed the thought to be more accurate. My new thought is… (Share your example with the students.)
So, what I learned to do (or need to do) is to cross out the negative and inaccurate thought in my mind and reframe this thought in a way that is more accurate. This concept is exactly what we are going to practice in our creative project today.”
“Next, we’re going to see a really great example of someone who really practices what Dr. Vasan described during the expert video at the start of class. This is a short video from an actor who many of you will recognize! In this video, Bryan Cranston describes the way he used to be really hard on himself during auditions, but he learned how to change those critical and deceptive thoughts! This is a great reminder that even people we look up to, like talented actors, may have had struggles behind closed doors and had to overcome self-criticism.”
Bryan Cranston shares the way he learned to reframe negative self-critical thoughts when he was auditioning for roles at the start of his career.
Feel free to share any additional videos from this lesson that you feel will resonate with your class.
Introducing the Creative Activity:
*Slide 3
Introduce the creative activity – writing a “found poem.” Explain the way writing a “found poem” is similar to the process of revising our thoughts.
Example of What You Could Say:
“The creative activity we are going to do will help you practice ‘crossing out’ some inaccurate thoughts and ‘rewriting’ them. Has anyone ever made a ‘found poem’ before? It’s actually simpler than writing a poem. It just involves taking text that someone else has written and crossing out certain words in order to create a poem with the words that remain. (Share examples of found poems.)
The interesting thing about this activity is that it is similar to what happens in our brains when we are deciding which thoughts to revise. We are essentially training our minds to cross out the inaccurate thoughts and replace them with more accurate ones. This does not mean your painful feeling should be avoided. It is important to allow ourselves to feel and express emotions – but after you have experienced the feelings, you can move forward by looking at the thoughts to see if they are actually true and reframing them if they’re not.
For the creative project, we’re going to create a poem. The first copy of your poem is a representation of the inaccurate thoughts that you used to believe. The second copy is a representation of the more accurate, confident thoughts that you now know to be more true. This second copy shows that you’re now thinking about a previous negative thought in a new way. Your poem does not have to be an exact depiction of the actual thought. Rather, it can simply be words that describe a poetic sense of that thought. I created a found poem and would like to share it with you right now.” (Read your poem to the students and briefly explain the way the second copy of your poem illustrates a change in your thinking.)
* Slides 4 and 5
Invite students to share their poems. Encourage students to describe the inaccurate thought that inspired the poem if they would like to share this information as well.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Does anyone want to share their found poem? If you feel comfortable, you might also want to describe the thought that inspired your poem.”
Encourage students to continue to practice this technique of reframing their thoughts.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Thank you for sharing. I loved seeing your poems, and I hope you enjoyed this activity today. Today, we learned a valuable technique for reframing negative thoughts into more accurate, confident thoughts. I hope you can continue to practice this technique beyond our lesson today.”
If you or your students would like to learn more about the ideas in this lesson, additional resources and third party links are included below.