Feel Good Music

Fancy winning a one on one life coaching session, as well as a £50 Debenhams voucher? Then enter our “Feel Good Music” competition, and get thinking positively!

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy examines how unhealthy (negative) thoughts can affect our happiness and helps us change our attitude into healthy (positive) thoughts. Unhealthy thoughts can be found everywhere, but a very common place for them is in song. So for our competition we want you to rewrite your favourite song, CBT style!

How to enter the competition:

First off, you need to “like” our Facebook page. www.facebook.com/ccbhlondon

Now this is the fun part, all you have to do is “re-write” one of your favourite songs that contains lots of negative thoughts. What you need to do is put a positive spin on it, CBT style…Then upload it to our Facebook page, either in the form of a status update, or if you are really confident, upload a recording of you singing your new version. Don’t worry, you don’t need to re-write the complete song, just one verse or chorus.

You will need to include your name, the name of the song and the original artist.

Before you get writing, we have compiled some helpful hints and tips and provided our own example songs, so read on for a little while longer.

What are healthy lyrics?

Based on things that you want, while accepting that it is possible that sometimes we don’t always get what we want.
Accept that bad things happen without catastrosphising the badness e.g. it’s really bad that I didn’t get what I want but the world has not ended.
Acknowledge that we experience difficulty and frustration whilst remaining resilient e.g. it’s very tough but I am still alive and breathing.
Separate the worth of the individual from that person’s desire. e.g. if a relationship breaks down, I believe that I am worthwhile person with or without that partner.

Spotting some unhealthy lyrics which you want to avoid / change (hint there):

Based on ‘MUST’, ‘HAVE TO’, ‘GOT TO’, and ‘NEED TO’.
Inconsistent with reality and don’t accept other alternatives
Catastrophise the bad situation and underestimate the person’s ability to cope with the hardship.
Links the person’s worth to the condition the person is insisting on e.g. I must have love, and if not I am nothing.

One last pointer. It’s all about ME, the song needs to accept that we are largely responsible for all our own emotions. It is not someone else who or the situation that causes them. E.g. if you break up with someone, believe that it’s bad to be without love, but you remain worthwhile in spite of it.

Here’s two we did earlier:

1. Mariah Carey, I cant live (if living is without you)

Unhealthy original:

I can’t live
If living is without you
I can’t live
I can’t give anymore
Can’t live
If living is without you
can’t give,
I can’t give anymore

CBT style healthy version:

I can live
If living is without you
I can live
I can give, I can give some more … even if now it feels like I can’t

I can live
If living is without you
I can give,
I can give somemore

Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart

Unhealthy original:

Don’t leave me in all this pain
Don’t leave me out in the rain
Come back and bring back my smile
Come and take these tears away
I need your arms to hold me now
The night are so unkind
Bring back those nights when I held you beside me

CBT style healthy version – not a number 1 we agree but you get the idea

I’d like you not to leave me in this pain

I’d like you not to leave me out in the rain … but you did

I’d love it if you came back as I would smile again

Please come back, I would stop crying

I really want your arms around me to hold me now but I don’t need them

I feel so bad at night at the moment but I know it won’t feel like this for ever

I wish for those nights when I held you beside me but you buggered off

OK, we will never make it in the music industry, but you might…Let’s see how you do, good luck…

You can find the T and Cs here