How would you cope if your personal mobile was confiscated during work hours, as is being proposed for schoolchildren?
I think you’d be happier, understand more, and experience faster growth.
Why?
The mobile phone eats into our self reflection time.
And the less we self reflect, understand, learn and improve, the less we will change.
Reflection can happen almost anywhere, but too often our mobiles mop up those minutes.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is used most commonly to resolve anxiety, depression and assertiveness. However, its real value lies in self exploration and understanding which is the building block of growth, results, wellbeing and better performance including leadership.
The ‘5 aspects model’ advocated by CBT practitioners perfectly illustrates how inter-related our thoughts, physical sensations, moods, emotions, and behaviours all are, and how they all fuel each other.
Padesky’s 5 Aspects model, White’s example, Oxford University 2017
Here’s how you can apply the model yourself:
- What are the specific thoughts that are going through my head? What others… until you can come up with no more. Then and only then move onto the next area
- What emotions am I feeling, again looking at an exhaustive list: it’s interesting how often it’s when you dig deepest you come up with the most useful finding
- What physical sensations do these thoughts and emotions result in (ad infinitum)
- What behaviours am I doing as a result?
- Then examine the inter-relatedness of everything e.g. How do these behaviours relate to or build the emotions and physical sensations and thoughts, how do the thoughts affect how I feel and act etc, to understand the consequences of each.
By recognising the thinking that drives the behaviour, you can change your thoughts and behaviours. When you can do that you will be able to modify your feelings to achieve more in every aspect of your life – with or without your mobile phone.
