- In this Tool
- When To Use This Tool
- How To Use This Tool
- Example Scenarios
Yarn
What if ? Thinking about consequences for our actions
When To Use This Tool
Use this Tool anytime you feel uncertain. It is common to feel unsure or uncertain about making a change as change can be scary. It takes dedication and commitment. Think back to times when you’ve made positive changes previously. What's worked? Did you find it easy? What helped you stay motivated?
How To Use This Tool
At Yarn SMART meetings, you’ll have the opportunity to share your story and have time to think about the positives and negatives about the behavior you’re wanting to change.
At first this can seem simple - looking at all the positives and negatives. However, sometimes it does take a bit of unpacking and input from others who have similar experiences.
Yarning with the group and using the individual tools can be powerful and motivating and can often help you think of other strategies that may assist you on your journey.
Example Scenarios
In the yarning circle you can talk or think about the consequences of your using or doing the behavior of concern. This can help you see the consequences of your actions and helps to see new, positive outcomes of changing your behavior.
For example: Smoking Yarndi
Related Tools
View all- Tool
Lifestyle Audit
When we slow down on a behaviour of concern, it can leave a gaping hole in our lives. Often, we find that we have a lot more free time, which used to be filled with activities related to our old behaviour. Also, we may no longer associate with the same group of friends.
- Tool
Setting SMART Goals
It’s important to make sure goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
- Tool
Weekly Planner
Once you have set some specific goals and broken them down into smaller, specific steps, the weekly planner can be useful for keeping these goals on track and ensuring that you are taking active steps towards achieving them.
Tool Overview
The ABC Model is a good way of understanding how we can help change our feelings and behaviour by challenging our thinking.
When to Use This Tool
The ABC Model is a good way of understanding how we can help change our feelings and behaviour by challenging our thinking. It helps us uncover beliefs that are not helping us /contributing to the behaviour we are trying to change.
This exercise may be done in the group setting but can also be very useful for participants to look at between meetings.
How To Use This Tool
When working with urges: To analyze a lapse/relapse or to develop coping statements for an anticipated lapse/relapse.
In the event of a lapse, the question to ask is not “What made me do that”, but rather, “How did I talk myself into it?” It is not the urge (A) that causes the lapse (C). It is our beliefs (B); our irrational self-talk.With emotional upset:
The ABC Model can also be used to work with emotional upset or frustrations that may occur at any point in the recovery journey. The ABCs allow us to discover our unhelpful beliefs which contribute to emotional upsets. Disputing helps us eliminate our irrational thinking so we can both feel better and do better. In SMART Recovery we teach that we feel the way we think; it’s not unpleasant events that disturb us, it’s the way we think of them. By changing our thinking, we change how we feel.Identifying and Disputing Unhelpful Thinking.
Disputing is a process of challenging the way we think about situations. It’s about trying to look at thoughts more accurately. Disputing unhelpful thinking can help us make more informed decisions about thoughts instead of just acting on them. Balanced thinking leads to effective new beliefs.
