GMT TECHNIQUES

DOWNWARD ARROW
TECHNIQUE
This book will take you through the
downward arrow technique to identifying
what deeper belief you hold about yourself
that is triggering and driving your anxious
thoughts
 What are we doing here?

Something is triggering and driving your anxious thoughts.

What is that?

They are your deeper beliefs or core beliefs..

What are core beliefs?

Core beliefs are your most central thoughts about what

you think of yourself and how you see or how you
interpret the normal difficulties we all face.

How do core beliefs contribute to anxiety?

When a core belief is activated it activates a mode in your

brain.

In this mode you take in only information that supports

the belief, and disregard anything that may challenge it.

So you get stuck in a loop of biased and negative thoughts

 For example,

If I have the core belief that "I am unlovable", and I am

talking to a person I have met for the first time, my brain will
disregard that "the person smiled at me, asked me out for
lunch".

But it will take in the information that "he did not respond
to my text for half an hour".

The conclusion will be that "he doesn't like me", therefore "I
am unlovable"

When you’re caught up in negative core beliefs, you

cannot think realistically about the actual events in life
and that eventually causes anxiety.

Learning to identify and challenge our core beliefs

means these flawed ideas no longer make decisions for
us.

What to do about it?

Use the downward arrow technique which helps you look

beneath the surface of your anxious thoughts to see which
beliefs are really driving them.
 How to do the downward arrow technique

Get your notebook and try the following exercise to

recognise your core beliefs.

Lets go about it step by step..

Identify a situation/line of thought that brings about

1
anxiety for you.

Record the fearful/anxious thoughts you have about,

2
or when you’re in the situation/line of thought

For each thought listed, ask yourself, “If this thought

3
were true, what does it mean about me as a person?

Each time you understand what that thought means

4
about you, write it down.

Then ask yourself the same question about new

thoughts listed: “What does it mean about me as a
5
person if this thought is actually 100 percent
accurate?
 Then do the same for the next new thought.
6
Eventually you will funnel down to a core belief.

Examples of beliefs

Negative core beliefs typically fall into two general

categories: beliefs associated with helplessness and
beliefs associated with unlovability

Examples of Helplessness core beliefs

I'm a failure

Nothing I do will make a difference

I'm helpless

I'm inadequate

I'm weak
 Examples of Unlovable core beliefs

I'm unworthy

I'm bad

I'm unlikable

I'm unwanted

I'm not good enough

Technique in action

Say this is your thought as an example:

“I’m worried I’m not going to complete my report for work

on time. I second-guess my every move. I literally can’t stop
obsessing about work even for a few moments.”
 Here is the downward arrow technique:-

What does it mean about you as a person if you don’t

complete the report?

“ That I’m letting my team down.”

What does it mean about you if you let your team down?

“My colleagues won’t respect me.”

What does it mean about you if your colleagues don’t

respect you?

“That I failed.”

This reflects a helplessness core belief. Deep down, you

believe that you are inadequate as a person. Likely you are
underestimating her competence
Try it by yourself &
remember,
we are ALWAYS
here for you..
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GMT TECHNIQUES