a positive spin on lapses :)

[freestylemonster]

Alright so anybody who has been trying to get over their social anxiety knows exactly what a lapse is. I know them all to well, just had a big one today. At first I was all depressed about it and thought I was gonna have to start on square one again but then i remembered and important CBT concept...In order for you to experience a lapse you had to have made some progress!

This means that the old negative neural pathway in your brain IS getting smaller and is now trying harder to keep itself from disappearing and letting the new positive thinking neural pathway take over. But don't give up! Just remember in order to have a lapse you had to have made progress

 

[bleach]

Another way to look at it, is to remember that your goal is not to be a more social person on any particular day. Your goal is to improve your overall social comfort and skills for the long-term. So a lapse does not mean a setback, it just represents a momentary waning of confidence and willpower. Like that cliché "it's a marathon, not a sprint" - although I think it would be more apt to say, it's like training for a marathon. No marathoner in training runs 26 miles a day at race pace, because their bodies would rapidly break down if they tried it. It takes a gradual program of increasing mileage, interspersed with some shorter runs to improve speed, and occasionally a 'slow day' or 'rest day' to allow the body to recover. I think our minds also need some 'rest days' to recover from mental training, as well. The trick is to rebound from these rest days without getting discouraged.