Another David Burns exercise I tried from this morning.

Step One/Event: Seeing myself in the elevator mirror.

Step Two/Describe and Rank Feelings:
Discouragement 60
Disgust 60
Self-Dislike 60

Step Three: Triple Column

Automatic Thought
1. I am fat.
2. I am unattractive.
3. I am without worth because of my hips.
4. I should love myself more.

Distortions
1. Overgeneralization
2. Mind-reading
3. Personalization
4. Should Statement.

Rational Responses
1. I am not fat. I am a healthy weight by all scientific standards. And even if I were fat, so what? I deserve self esteem just by existing. I do not need to earn my own self esteem.

2. I don’t know whether others are attracted to me or not. I am reasonably sure my husband is. Having someone I’m not in love with consider me attractive is nice, but not necessary to my happiness. I like to look nice, to like what I see in the mirror but it is not the sum total of my worth. I do not need to be attractive to everyone to earn my own self esteem.

3. This is ridiculous. I am not my hips. It would be nice if my hips were smaller, but I am not my hips. My worth has a human being is not dependent on the size of my hips and it would be ridiculous to think so.

4. I am working on loving myself more. It would be nice if the process were automatic but its not yet. I do not need to earn love by appearance, especially when that evaluation of appearance is subjective.

Result: I feel a bit better. The emotions are down in ranking to about 40 each.