The reader's edition
Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think: the summary
Dennis Greenberger and Christine A. Padesky are clinical psychologists who helped train a generation of therapists in cognitive behavioural therapy. Mind Over Mood is their workbook, first published in 1995 and revised in 2015, and many therapists hand it to clients while plenty of readers work through it alone. Its starting point is a five-part model: your life situation, thoughts, moods, behaviours and physical reactions all affect one another, so a change in one can shift the rest. The core tool is the seven-column Thought Record, which takes a mood from a named and rated feeling, through the thought behind it and the evidence on both sides, to a more balanced view. Later chapters add action plans, behavioural experiments and work on core beliefs, with separate chapters on depression, anxiety, anger, guilt and shame, and the second edition adds acceptance and gratitude. It teaches through worksheets and through people it follows from chapter to chapter, such as Linda, whose panic made flying hard, and Vic, who struggled with anger. Read a chapter at a time, with a printable action book at the end.
- Dennis Greenberger and Christine A. Padesky
- 2015
- 4 chapters
- 6 min read
- 9 takeaways
This is HourLife's reading of Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think, in our own words. It is not a substitute for the book.
Chapter 01
Before you start
The book in a minute
Tap a paragraph to highlight it. Turn pages with the arrows, the arrow keys, or a swipe.
Dennis Greenberger and Christine A. Padesky are clinical psychologists who helped train a generation of therapists in cognitive behavioural therapy. Mind Over Mood is their workbook, first published in 1995 and revised in 2015, and many therapists hand it to clients while plenty of readers work through it alone. Its starting point is a five-part model: your life situation, thoughts, moods, behaviours and physical reactions all affect one another, so a change in one can shift the rest. The core tool is the seven-column Thought Record, which takes a mood from a named and rated feeling, through the thought behind it and the evidence on both sides, to a more balanced view. Later chapters add action plans, behavioural experiments and work on core beliefs, with separate chapters on depression, anxiety, anger, guilt and shame, and the second edition adds acceptance and gratitude. It teaches through worksheets and through people it follows from chapter to chapter, such as Linda, whose panic made flying hard, and Vic, who struggled with anger.
Below are the 9 ideas HourLife readers vote up most, each in our words with a note on what it asks of you, and then the steps that put them to work.
Chapter 02
What readers keep
The takeaways
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1
HourLife takeaway
A mood is usually one word; a thought is a whole sentence, and mixing them up hides what you can work on.
The book has readers name moods in a single word, such as sad, nervous or angry, and rate how strong each one is from 0 to 100. Thoughts are the words and pictures that go with the mood. Once you separate the two, the thought becomes something you can look at instead of something you simply feel.
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2
HourLife takeaway
Your situation, thoughts, moods, actions and body all push on each other, so you can start a change at any of the five.
This five-part model is the book's map. A hard week at work can bring worried thoughts, a tight chest, low mood and skipped plans, and each of those feeds the others. Seeing the loop drawn out tells you there is more than one place to step in.
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3
HourLife takeaway
Find the hot thought, the one carrying the most feeling, and test that one first.
A bad moment often comes with a crowd of thoughts. The Thought Record asks you to list them and then mark the one most connected to the strongest mood. Testing that single thought does more than arguing with all of them at once.
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4
HourLife takeaway
Evidence means facts that would stand up in front of other people, not your reading of what those facts mean.
The two evidence columns are where most people get stuck. Writing 'she thinks I'm useless' is an interpretation; 'she didn't reply to my message for two days' is a fact. Keeping to facts on both sides makes the weighing fair.
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5
HourLife takeaway
A balanced thought is not a cheerful thought; it has to fit all the evidence, including the parts that hurt.
The book is clear that this is not positive thinking. A good alternative thought often keeps the true, painful part and adds what the hot thought left out. You then rate how much you believe it and re-rate your moods, and a drop from 90 to 60 counts as progress.
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6
HourLife takeaway
When the evidence says the thought is true, stop arguing with it and make a plan.
Sometimes the problem is real: the bill is overdue, the relationship is in trouble. For those moments the book swaps the Thought Record for an action plan, with steps, a start time, likely obstacles and how you will handle them.
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7
HourLife takeaway
Some beliefs are easier to test by doing something than by thinking about it.
Underlying assumptions often take the form of an if-then rule, such as if I say no, people will reject me. The book turns rules like that into behavioural experiments: predict what will happen, try it, and write down what actually did.
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8
HourLife takeaway
Core beliefs change slowly, one small piece of evidence at a time.
Deeper beliefs about yourself, other people and the world sit under many automatic thoughts. The later chapters suggest naming a new belief you would like to hold and collecting small daily signs that it is true. The point is weeks and months of noticing, not a single insight.
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9
HourLife takeaway
Changing your thoughts is one skill; accepting what you cannot change and noticing what is good are others.
The second edition adds acceptance and gratitude to the toolkit. Not every hard feeling needs to be argued away, and paying regular attention to what is going well can lift mood alongside the thought work.
Chapter 03
Put it to work
Your action book
Do the setup steps once, then keep the habits going. The setup changes your week; the habits keep it changed after the first good one.
The download puts this whole reading and a printable action book in one PDF: the setup checklist, then a page of real calendar days for each habit, starting on the day you choose.
Set up once
Map one bad moment on the five parts
Pick one moment from this week that went badly. Write five short lines: the situation, what went through your mind, the moods you felt, what you did, and what your body did.
Build your own mood list
Write down ten one-word moods you feel often, such as anxious, irritated, ashamed or flat. Keep the list in your notes so you can name a mood quickly and rate it from 0 to 100.
Fill in one full Thought Record
Choose a moment with a strong mood and work through all seven columns in one sitting. Do it on paper or in the guided record on this page, and keep the result.
Turn one rule into an experiment
Write down one if-then rule you live by, such as if I ask for help, I'll look weak. Plan a small test for this week, write what you predict will happen, then write what actually did.
Decide now who you would call
On one card, write your local emergency number, your doctor's number and one person you trust. Self-help works best when you already know where to turn if things get worse.
Keep it up
Catch the hot thought when a mood spikes
When a mood jumps, note the time, the mood with its rating, and the one sentence in your head. A phone note is enough; you can finish the record later.
Do a weekly record review
Once a week, read back your Thought Records. Look for thoughts that keep coming back, since they often point to an if-then rule or a core belief worth testing.
Log one fact for a new belief each day
Write the belief you are building, such as I am worth listening to. Each evening, add one small thing from the day that fits it, even if it seems minor.
Chapter 04
The last word
Before you go
Pick one step from the action book and do it today. An idea from a book starts to count once it changes what one ordinary day looks like.
Name the feeling, find the thought under it, and weigh that thought like a fair judge would.
That is the end of our reading. Where to go from here, or go back to the full Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think page.
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