Want to Motivate Behavior Change in Others? Apply Motivational Interviewing Techniques to General Life

Motivation is the fuel needed for change. Without it, it is difficult to create the inertia to move past status quo. People often gravitate to what is known rather than the unknown and live in a state of being comfortably uncomfortable instead of making behavior change. Motivational interviewing techniques can be applied, not just between therapists and their clients, but as a general tool of communication to facilitate motivation for change.



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Shifting Thoughts and Taking Control: Cognitive Restructuring for Anxiety Management

Anxiety management and recovery require recognizing anxious catastrophic thinking when it is happening (read here for more details). Once recognized, you can reduce anticipatory anxiety by changing thoughts and interrupting projections. Break down these thoughts and create a framework to analyze them with cognitive restructuring techniques.

First, let’s review some definitions.



Anticipatory anxiety is all the time wasted dreading, worrying, and panicking over a future event (a projection of an imagined outcome) where every imaginable negative outcome is thought of (catastrophizing). Cognitive restructuring techniques are tools to help break down these thoughts and analyze them using a series of questions. These questions help to identify when a cognitive distortion (a thought that isn’t accurate or based in current reality) is driving your anxiety. read more