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Running Head: SELF-CHANGE PROJECT REPORT 1

Self-Change Project Report

Robyn Polsfut

University of Lethbridge

Masters of Counselling Program

CAAP 6635: Biological Foundations of Psychology

Professor J. Thannhauser

SELF-CHANGE PROJECT REPORT

Self-Change Project Report

For my self-change project, I chose to attempt to improve my cardiovascular

health by swimming. I set my overall goal as being able to swim 2000 meters by the time

the six-week plan was completed. I chose this as my goal for three reasons, one to

improve my cardiovascular health, two to engage my body in an entirely new type of

exercise, and lastly to change my thinking about my body can and cannot do. Guiding my

change process was the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). This model of health

behaviour change proposes that performing health behaviours is dependent on individual

attitudes towards said health behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; Taylor & Sirois, 2014). These

attitudes are referred to as behavioural intentions and are made up of three components

(1) attitude towards the specific action; (2) subjective norms regarding the action; and (3)

perceived level of behavioural control (Ajzen, 1991; Taylor & Sirois, 2014; Terry, Hogg,

& White, 1999). By working with and changing these attitudes, an individual can engage

in more health related behaviours and improve their overall health (Taylor & Sirois,

2014).

In order to encompass these three aspects of the TPB I developed a detailed

schedule to achieve my ultimate goal of being able to swim 2000 meters. Along with this

schedule I used an automatic thought change record aimed at correcting my negative

automatic thoughts (Wright, Basco, & Thase, 2006). I also created a positive affirmation

chart to use throughout my swims to increase my motivation. Lastly I assessed my

overall wellness at weeks one, three, and six (University of British Columbia, 2015). The

completed swim schedule can be seen in Appendix A, automatic thought change record

in Appendix B, wellness assessments in Appendix C, and the affirmations that I used

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during my swims, which I scaled from one to 10, one being ineffective at motivating me

and 10 being highly motivating in Appendix D. For full rationale for these interventions,

please refer to my Self-Change Project Proposal (Polsfut, 2015). In the coming sections

of this report I will discuss the methods used throughout my project, outcomes of my

project including reflection on the personal experience of engaging in this health

behaviour change model and interventions, and explore further recommendations for

adapting this plan to working with clients.

Methods

This health change process utilized multidimensional methods in order to engage

in the change process as well as evaluate and track any changes made throughout the

course of the six weeks. In keeping with the TPB, I chose to be very specific about

planning to swim four days a week and what the length of each of those swims would be.

This was intended to help improve my perceived level of control over performing each

swim, an integral piece of the TPB (Ajzen & Madden, 1986). As seen in Appendix A, I

completed my first swim on June 1, 2015 at a distance of 500 meters. Upon completing

each swim, I would write the date on the chart.

For each swim, I also created an affirmation to use before and during my time in

the water. Prior to each swim, I would write out the affirmation on a card, the length of

the swim that I had to achieve, and a place where I could scale it once my swim was

complete. This scaling was based on how motivating the affirmation was to me. The

score from one to 10 was then put in bold beside each affirmation in the chart.

Very important to the TPB, is changing one’s attitude about the intended health

behaviour (Ajzen & Madden, 1986; Taylor & Sirois, 2014). Something that I recognized

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in myself before undertaking this project was that I had a lot of negative thoughts about

cardiovascular-type exercise and that I was close to convinced that these activities were

not for me. It was from this place that I chose to utilize an automatic thought change

record, which I adapted from Wright, Basco, and Thase (2006). I intended to change my

attitude and explore any subjective norms that arose throughout this process in this chart.

Following each swim, I would record any maladaptive or automatic thoughts that I had

and complete each column on the chart. Something that is hard to track in terms of

outcome, but became an important part of my preparation for each swim was reading the

previous swim’s thought change record. There are recurrent themes present throughout

this record, which will be explored further in the outcomes and reflection section of this

report.

Though this project had the specific goals of improving my cardiovascular health,

engaging my body in a new physical way, and improving my thoughts and beliefs about

what I can and cannot do, I also tracked my overall wellness at week’s one, three, and

six. This was done using the University of British Columbia’s Wellness Assessment tool

(2015). This assessment is comprised of eight wellness categories physical, personal,

emotional, play, spiritual, social, financial, and academic. This assessment asks

individuals to complete a brief self-report questionnaire that corresponds with each

wellness category, once completed a score from one to five (one being low wellness, five

being high wellness) for each category is given. On June 1, 2015, prior to any swimming,

I completed this assessment. My baseline scores were 3.8 physical, 3.7 personal, 3.5

emotional, 2.7 play, 3.7 spiritual, 3.5 social, 4.5 financial, and 3.5 academic. Each time I

completed the UBC Wellness Assessment (2015), I also reflected on the experience and

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scores, which are included in Appendix C. Improvement was made in each wellness

category, which will be discussed in the outcomes and reflection section of this report.

A single addition was made to these methods after two weeks of swimming. That

addition was a positive thought log, which can be seen in Appendix E. I chose to begin

tracking my positive thoughts at this time because I was beginning to see improvements

in my attitude and thinking that I wanted to record. This log is written in a journal-style to

capture my lived experience.

Outcomes and Reflection

This health change project yielded positive outcomes that I am happy to report

and reflect on. Positive changes on the UBC Wellness Assessment (2015), decreased

strength of automatic thoughts, increased belief in rational positive thoughts, as well as

increased efficacy in the use and power of affirmations will all be discussed and reflected

on. It is important to note here that I was able to successfully swim 2000 meters

following this model and change process.

UBC Wellness Assessment

Improvements were made in all eight categories of the UBC Wellness Assessment

from week one to week six. I have broken these eight categories into two, four-category

sections for visual depiction as well as reflection. In the graph below the categories of

physical, personal, emotional, and play wellness are plotted. Immediately, one can see

that the play wellness category saw the most significant improvement and physical

wellness saw the least significant improvement. From the beginning to end of this six

weeks my enjoyment of going swimming and being in the aquatic center environment

improved. From my perspective, every time that I went for a swim it was better than the

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last time. I believe that it is for these reasons that such significant improvements are seen

in the play wellness category. Working out and engaging in physical activity is something

that I thoroughly enjoy doing and prior to this project I would workout roughly three to

four days per week. For this project I maintained a higher consistent average of physical

activity, but simply changed the activity that I was participating in. It is for this reason

that such subtle improvements in physical wellness are seen.

Week 1 Week 3 Week 60

1

2

3

4

5

UBC Welless Assessment Categories: Physical, Personal, Emotional, Play

Physical Personal Emtional Play

Scor

e

The graph below depicts the spiritual, social, financial, and academic wellness

categories of the UBC Wellness Assessment. Improvements in these four categories were

less significant than the four above, however improvements are still reported. An excerpt

from Appendix C best describes and reflects on these changes,

“…Contributing to this financial change is the fact that I received a bursary

from the Government of Alberta in June, which has helped my financial

situation in completing this program. A change that I was expecting to see

more improvement in was the emotional category. Nearing the end of the

project I felt a lot more positive overall, confident, and found my swims to get

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more and more motivating. I thought that this assessment tool would have

reflected this more.”

Week 1 Week 3 Week 60

1

2

3

4

5

UBC Wellness Assessment Cateogies: Spiritual, Social, Financial, Academic

Spiritual Social Financial Academic

Scor

e

Automatic Thought Changes

In order to improve my attitudes contributing to engaging in cardiovascular

exercise, I chose to address my automatic, irrational, and maladptive thoughts using a

thought change record. In order to quantify changes in my thinking I included scaling. In

this chart I described in detail the situation leading up to the maladaptive thought,

recorded the thought and the strength of my belief in this thought, rated my emotional

experience as a result of this thought, identified any cognitive errors I was making,

developed and recorded a more rational thought, recorded my belief in this new more

rational thought, and then rated my new emotional experience as a result of correcting

this maladaptive thought.

Throughout this thought change record there are a couple of themes that recur.

The most repetitive theme was doubt as to if I would be able to achieve my goal of

swimming 2000 meters and the send most recurrent theme was if I would be able to

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finish the swim of the day. It took me all the way to the end of this model and process to

believe (and know) that yes, I can swim 2000 meters. Interestingly, I did not stop a swim

once throughout this process. The thought of self-doubt in my abilities was present often,

however did not conquer me or lead me to not complete a swim. As the swims progressed

the strength of my belief in my negative thoughts decreased as well as their ability to

negatively impact my emotional experience. Simultaneously my belief in my rational

thoughts increased, as did the improvement of my emotional experience as a result of

these thoughts. My thought-change work helped me to finish the six weeks in a

cognitively strong and balanced way. In my last three swims of the project I was

motivated, encouraged, and believing in my abilities to finish achieve the 2000-meter

swim.

Affirmations

Prior to beginning the project I researched affirmations and how they could be

used for therapeutic change. This research really motivated me to include this as part of

my change project. Something that became obvious as soon as I started swimming is that

I did not really know how to put these affirmations and mantras to use outside of

theoretical understanding. It took numerous swims before I realized that affirmations

could be used to combat negative thoughts, be recited throughout the swim as a way to

keep my mind busy and focused on something positive, and simply contemplated and

thought about as I swam. Once I figured out the different ways to use these affirmations

my rating of their motivational power increased. As I got closer to the end of the six

weeks I looked forward to working with a different affirmation and I was confident to

know how to adapt the affirmation to work for my swim that day. I think that it is this

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experience of learning how to use the affirmations in real life that contributed to my

increased rating of their motivational properties.

Recommendations

Overall, the interventions used in this health change model did help me achieve

all three of my personal goals in completing this project. That being said, this work only

took me so far, and if I were to be doing this work with a client, there are changes and

recommendations that I would make. The first important change that I would make would

be to include an assessment of cardiovascular health over and above being able to

complete a certain distance swim. This assessment would have provided this report with

more baseline and completion data and could have provided insights into any plateaus

and barriers that could have presented as a result of working with this model.

Another change that I would make is how I addressed changing my thought

process. While this change process was guided by the TPB, in order to change my

attitudes about the intended health behaviour, I chose interventions from the cognitive

behavioural theory of change (CBT). What is evident in the outcomes section above, is

that I dove straight into intervening and correcting maladaptive thoughts without much

prior or follow-up work. Before intervening on thoughts, it would be helpful to have a

period of time where they were simply recorded and observed (Wright, Basco, & Thase,

2006). This could have been done in the first four to six swims. Depending on what was

discovered in this observation period, I could have tailored the thought change record to

include more specific interventions depending on the thoughts observed. For example, a

common theme in my thought record was doubting my ability to complete a swim while I

was in the water, a powerful intervention could have been to examine the evidence as to

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why I though I could not complete the swim (Erford, Eaves, Bryant, & Young, 2010). I

would have discovered that there was no real evidence that I could not complete the

swim, only the fact that the swims challenged me physically. This realization would be

successful in correcting this thought pattern as well as providing me with insight into

future swims when self-doubt was present. Another possibility when maladaptive

thoughts present in such thematic ways is that there are core beliefs within the individual

that contribute to these thoughts (Wright, Basco, & Thase, 2006). In working with a

client, going to this depth of cognitive work would be extremely beneficial to effective

and long-term maintenance of positive change (Wright, Basco, & Thase, 2006).

As mentioned above, there was no inclusion of follow-up work that would help

incorporate my learning and corrected thinking into my every day life outside of this

change project. Literature on relapse-prevention planning demonstrates that this can be a

powerful tool to making change that is long-term (Perri, Nezu, McKelvey, Shermer,

Renjilian, & Viegener, 2001; Marlatt & George, 1984). In working with clients, this

would be important thing to include in any health behaviour change plan and model.

A challenge that I experienced initially in this process was how to effectively use

affirmations. This challenge could have turned into a barrier to my being able to

effectively complete this health change model. Working with a client, it would be

important to provide psychoeducation as to why this intervention was chosen, and also to

provide time to explore how this intervention might be used and adapted in everyday life.

Using interventions does take practice and intention, however having concrete ideas as to

how to use an intervention is key to actually trying it out.

Conclusion

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Participating in this health change project provided me with an opportunity to

walk-the-walk with regards to putting the Theory of Planned Behaviour to action. The

learning that I received from doing versus just theorizing or hypothesizing on this health

change model was profound. The TPB helped me to achieve my health change goal of

improving my cardiovascular health and to be able to swim 2000 meters. Having put this

model to action with myself, I am able to project onto how I might use this model with a

client, and the changes that I would make. The three key attitudes that the TPB seeks to

change to produce health behaviours (general attitude towards health behaviour perceived

control over ability to perform health behaviour, and subjective norms about the health

behaviour) are deeply engrained in individuals. Understanding the depth necessary to

change these attitudes is the biggest lesson in counselling that I will take away from this

project, as well as many personal insights and the highlight of swimming those 2000

meters.

References

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organization Behavior and Human

Decision Processes, 50, 179-211. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

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Ajzen, I., & Madden, T. J. (1986). Prediction of goal directed behavior: Attitudes,

intentions, and perceived control. Journal of experimental social psychology, 22,

453-474. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(86)90045-4

Erford, B. T., Eaves, S. H., Bryant, E. M., & Young, K. A. (2010). 35 techniques every

counselor should know. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Pearson Education, Inc.

Marlatt, G. A., & George, W. H. (1984). Relapse prevention: Introduction and overview

of the model. British Journal of Addiction, 79, 261-273. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-

0443.1984.tb00274.x

Perri, M. G., Nezu, A. M., McKelvey, W. F., Shermer, R. L., Renjilian, D. A., &

Viegener, B. J. (2001). Relapse prevention training and problem-solving therapy in

the long-term management of obesity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical

Psychology, 69(4), 722-726. doi: I0.1037//0022-006X.69.4.722

Polsfut, R. (2015). Self-change project proposal. Unpublished proposal, University of

Lethbridge, AB.

Taylor, S. E., & Sirois, F. M. (2014). Health Psychology (3rd Canadian ed.). McGraw-

Hill.

Terry, D. J., Hogg, M. A., & White, K. M. (1999). The theory of planned behaviour: Self-

identity, social identity and group norms. British Journal of Social Psychology, 38,

225-244. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1348/014466699164149

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University of British Columbia. (2015). Assess your wellbeing. Retrieved from:

http://www.students.ubc.ca/livewelllearnwell/explore-wellness/assess-your-

wellbeing/?page=test&view=start

Wright, J. H., Basco, M. R., & Thase, M. E. (2006). Learning cognitive-behavior therapy

an illustrated guide. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Appendix A

Implementation Intentions: Completed week-by-week guide to swimming 2000-meters

Week Number Swim 1 Swim 2 Swim 3 Swim 41 500 m 600 m 700 m 750 m

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http://www.students.ubc.ca/livewelllearnwell/explore-wellness/assess-your-wellbeing/?page=test&view=start

http://www.students.ubc.ca/livewelllearnwell/explore-wellness/assess-your-wellbeing/?page=test&view=start


Date Achieved June 1 June 4 June 6 June 72 800 m 900 m 1000 m 1000 mDate Achieved June 9 June 11 June 13 June 143 1100 m 1200 m 1250 m 1250 mDate Achieved June 16 June 23 June 25 June 284 1300 m 1400 m 1450 m 1500 mDate Achieved June 30 July 2 July 3 July 45 1500 m 1600 m 1700 m 1750 mDate Achieved July 5 July 7 July 9 July 116 1750 m 1850 m 1950 m 2000 mDate Achieved July 12 July 13 July 14 July 16

Appendix B

Automatic Thought Change Record

Situation Automatic Emotion (s) Rational Outcome

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Thought (s) ResponseDescribe:Event leaving to unpleasant emotion; stream of thoughts leading to unpleasant emotion; unpleasant physiological reaction

a. Write automatic thoughts that preceded emotion

b.Rate belief in automatic thought (1=not believable, 10=very believable)

a. Specifyb.Rate

(1=tolerable, 10=not at all tolerable)

a. Identify cognitive errors

b.Write rational response to automatic thought

c. Rate belief in rational thought (1=not believable, 10=very believable)

a. Specify and rate subsequent emotions (1=not tolerable at all, 10=tolerable)

b.Describe any changes in behaviour

June 4- Went for my first 6:00 am swim. As soon as I finished my first length.

a. I thought “There is no way I can do this”

b. 6/10

a. Feeling downb. 3/10

a. Negative automatic thoughtb. A rational response would be to recognize that while I may not be able to swim 2000m today, with the plan I have made, I can reasonably achieve this goal.3. 7/10

a. Feeling more calm and in control, 8.b. I will remind myself of my detailed plan for my next swim to not get so hard on myself when it isn’t easy.

June 6- Middle of swim and a couple of times throughout. When you swim there is no music, no distractions from your thoughts.

a. Thought, “This is hard and you’re only half way done! You won’t be able to do this.”b. 6/10

a. Angerb. 3/10

a. Globalizing the of challenging part of my goal and equating it to failure.b. I responded with my affirmation for today’s swim, “You chose your attitude” and that really was effective to pushing through and finishing the swim.c. 8/10

a. Feeling confident and happy this thought did not get the better of me, 8.b. I am going to start using my affirmations to combat my negative thoughts in the moment.

June 7- No negative automatic thoughts to report, used yesterday’s affirmation and today’s throughout the swim.June 9- At the very end of my swim.

a. “How are you going to add 24

a. Down and also anxious.

a. Making a mountain out of

a. Relief and confidence in my

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Feeling tired and like I am pushing myself.

more laps onto this swim?”b. 5/10

b. 5/10 molehill style thinking.b. I have developed a plan to add on those extra laps and will slowly work towards the goal. I do not have to add 24 more laps today, or even tomorrow.c. 7/10

plan. 7/10.b. Focusing on my daily goal and not getting caught up in my negative thoughts be beliefs.

June 11- At the 15th lap of 18.

a. “You are never going to be able to do 40 laps.”b. 7/10

a. Angry and anxiousb. 6/10

a. Globalizing the challenge of my goal, never doesn’t really exist.b. I am working to take steps to get to 40 laps. I have lots of time and a plan to get there.c. 5/10

a. Not feeling angry anymore, but still a little nervous/anxious.b. Take the always and never out my thinking. I will identify them when I hear them and correct it.

June 13- Due to a swim meet at my pool I had to swim in the public swim area, which was very busy. This distraction interrupting any negative thoughts. I was too busy trying not to run into any swimmers!June 14- See positive thought log.June 16- Lap 17, nearing the end of my swim (5 more laps to go). Body getting tired, lungs working hard.

a. “You probably have hit your limit of how far you can swim.”b. 4/10

a. Disappointedb. 2/10

a. Using a word like “limit” globalizes and catastophizes my concern that I won’t be able to achieve this goal. It also feeds the concern and does not help it.b. You are healthy and strong. With

a. Feeling more confident, 7.b. Was able to focus on my swim, thinking about being healthy and strong enough to finish. I definitely finished and will be able to add more laps to my next swim.

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more practice my endurance will get better and this swim will eventually feel easy.c. 7/10

June 23-Beginning 10 laps of swim.

a. The thought, “You should not have taken any time off, now this is going to be even more impossible.”b. 4/10

a. Anxiousb. 5/10

a. “Impossible” globalization. And “shoulding” myself.b. My taking time off was out of my control. A more rational thought would be, “I do have to regain some strength from taking off, however I am able to recover.”c. 7/10

a. Feeling less anxious. 6/10b. I will go to my next swim knowing that I was able to make the distance I had planned for, even if it was more challenging. I will be able to achieve my next swim.

June 25- No negative thoughts, I was very concentrating on my swim this morning and had a really positive experience.June 28- I was having a hard time keeping my pace up during the last two lengths of my swim. My last swim at the same length was strong and this one is very challenging.

a. I thought, “This is going to be the plateau. You don’t have the ability to go further than this, you should change your final goal because you won’t make it”b. 4/10

a. Angry and upsetb. 4/10

a. I am using the word “should” as a way to back out of my commitment to achieving this goal. I am still globalizing my challenges as my general inability to achieve this goal.b. A more rational thought would be, “It is challenging because you are going a lot further than you were before. Look at how far you have come. You can add a couple more lengths next time.

a. I am not angry anymore I recognize that I was just challenged today. 8/10.b. My self-talk has quieted down and I am feeling in a better emotional and cognitive place.

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It is okay if the pace slows down a bit after swimming for so long.b.7/10

July 2- At the middle of my swim I accidently sucked up a little water through my nose and had a coughing fit in the middle of the lane, which I was sharing. I did not have the thought until I had caught my breath.

a. I thought, “Now the whole rest of this swim is going to be off because I coughed and messed up my respiratory rhythm. The person in the lane with me must think I am a new swimmer.”b. 6/10

a. I felt frustrated.b. 3/10

a. Globalizing is present, again. A more rational thought to this would be, “You will hit your stride again, there is still more than half of the swim to go. It is not all over because of some coughing, it was an accident, and could happen to anyone.b. 8/10

a. Feeling relieved and less overwhelmed by the experience. 7/10

July 4- Something about adding 50m, one more length was really dragging on me. I was counting every stroke and lap making it feel longer and harder than it actually was.

a. I did not have a particular thought just the constant rumination and counting of my swim.

a. I felt tired and worn out.b. 4/10

a. I do not know what distortion this is, more of a thought pattern.b. A more rational thing to have done is a mindfulness exercise as I was swimming. It may have brought attention away from my revolving thoughts and connected me more to my swimming experience.

a. I am feeling excited to try more mindfulness in the pool, I think that it will really help, especially with some of the ruminating I was doing today. 8/10

July 5- Did not have any serious automatic or negative thoughts, I did at one point wish that I was done my swim, but I repeated today’s affirmation and kept going.July 7- Just like my last swim, at about 1500m I

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wished that the swim was over, but I chose not to pay attention or think on that thought and finished my swim.July 9- No negative thoughts to report.July 11- Had an awesome swim! No negative thoughts to report.July 12- I had a really strong swim that was helped by riding my bike to the pool! It’s in the positive thought log July 13- No negative thoughts to report. Throughout the entire swim I kept thinking about how this is my third on before completing my goal. I know that I will make my goal!

Wright, J. H., Basco, M. R., & Thase, M. E. (2006). Learning cognitive-behavior therapy an illustrated guide. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing Inc.

Appendix C

University of British Columbia Wellness Assessment

Week 1: June 1, 2015

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Physical: 3.8/5Personal: 3.7/5Emotional: 3.5/5Play: 2.7/5Spiritual: 3.7/5Social: 3.5/5Financial: 4.5/5Academic: 3.5/5

Upon reviewing these results it is obvious that I am putting my emotional, play, and social-self on the back burner to achieve other financial, academic, and physical goals. I am surprised to see “physical” to be such a high number. This has helped me realize that I do maintain my physical-self more so than my emotional and social-self. I recognize the importance of social support and maintaining strong relationships with those around me. As I try to achieve this health behaviour goal, I will also try to improve my social connections with others and lean on them when I am looking for support. Not only will this contribute to my overall well-being, it might just help me achieve my health behaviour goal.

Week 3: June 28, 2015

Physical: 3.8/5Personal: 4/5Emotional: 3.8/5Play: 3.5/5Spiritual: 3.7/5Social: 3.8/5Financial: 4.7/5Academic: 3.8/5

I am really pleased to have seen this midpoint overview. Something that I thought would improve is my physical score, but it stayed the same from baseline. Prior to starting this self-change project I was working out three to four days a week. Now I am doing four consistently. I suppose that my answers to the questions were not all that different, though I do notice the physical benefits of my swimming so far. Upon seeing my baseline results I really took into consideration how low my play, social, and personal scores were. In realizing they were lacking I have taken some steps to try to improve these aspects of my life. I am happy to see that it is translating. I am starting to notice the impact of the automatic thought change record already, especially my self-talk it is a lot more compassionate and positive. I find the affirmations to be an effective boost to this work.

Week 6: July 16, 2015

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Physical: 4/5Personal: 4/5Emotional: 3.8/5 Play: 4/5Spiritual: 4/5Social: 3.8/5Financial: 4.8/5Academic: 4/5

Overall I am happy to report improvements in all categories of this wellness assessment. I can see some interesting changes that I was not at all expected in doing this change project. The most interesting one to me is the slight improvements in the financial category. Because I was spending so much of my spare time swimming, I was not out spending money in my usual ways, I was able to save, and having to prepare for early morning workouts forced me to do a lot of meal prep and the amount of money I spent on convenience items and eating decreased. Also contributing to this financial change is the fact that I received a bursary from the Government of Alberta in June, which has helped my financial situation in completing this program. A change that I was expecting to see more improvement in was the emotional category. Nearing the end of the project I felt a lot more positive overall, confident, and found my swims to get more and more motivating. I thought that this assessment tool would have reflected this more.

Appendix D

Affirmations

Week 1 1. You can do it! 7/10

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2. I am keeping my body healthy by doing what I am doing and challenging it. 3/103. I choose my attitude. 6/104. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. 5/10

Week 2 1. I am excited about this swim and this day! 4/10 (not very motivating!)2. Be the best version of you. 6/103. I am not a product of my circumstances, but a product of my decisions. 6/104. I am exactly where I need to be right now. 7/10

Week 3 1. I am healthy and strong. 6/102. I believe in my abilities, I am competent, and can express my true self. 6/103. I am in charge of how I feel, and today I feel strong and confident. 7/104. It’s not about being the best, it’s about being better than you were yesterday. 7/10

Week 4 1. I am improving everyday. 8/102. What I think of myself is my choice. 6/103. My body is getting stronger and healthier every time I swim. 7/104. I am proud of my body it does exactly what I tell it to do. 5/10

Week 5 1. I am filled with energy and vitality. 6/102. Positivity is a choice. 9/103. Don’t give up and don’t give in. 9/104. I can and I will. 9/10

Week 6 1. Keep trying, no matter how hard it seems it is doable! 8/102. I will persist until I succeed. 8/103. Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to your best friend. 9/104. One great moment, is realizing your body can now do something that it couldn’t six weeks ago. 10/10

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Appendix E

Positive Thought Log

After week two I decided to start this positive thought log. I have already started to see the benefit of observing and correcting my negative automatic thoughts and have started to recognize how helpful the affirmations are to my workouts. In order to keep track of my positive days, I will use this log.

Date Positive Thought

June 14 I really enjoy coming to the swimming pool and aquatic center more often. Even though I am alone there are a lot of people around and a feeling of community. It is enjoyable to be here.

June 23 I really missed swimming in the week that I did not go. The environment here really makes it enjoyable to spend this time.

June 25 Today’s affirmation really gave me a lot to think about and helped me concentrate on my swim. The swims are starting to get longer and time is

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starting to add up. What is interesting is that the more time I spend in the water the easier it becomes to stay swimming. This idea will help motivate me to keep with it when it challenges me.

June 28 I did this distance last time, I know that I am physically able to do it again.

June 30 I am really happy and proud that I adjusted my schedule to fit with the pool schedule and not miss a day of swimming because of the stat holiday.

July 3 I had a really strong swim and was able to do it without having any negative thoughts! I focused on my breathing and pacing and the laps really started to flow. Today was such a great swim!

July 4 Today a woman in the change room noticed that she always sees me at the pool early in the morning. It reaffirmed that I have really been working towards this goal. I am becoming a pool regular and that feels good!

July 5 I am really glad that I did 1500 m back-to-back. Today’s swim was a lot stronger and easier to finish than yesterdays and I was able to focus more on enjoying it. I did simple body scans every 500m and found that this was a really helpful technique to keep my mind and body on the same page and do my swim in an enjoyable way.

July 7 The body scanning every 500-ish meters is really helping! Had a great swim today!

July 9 Another great swim, I am starting to get pretty used to waking up before 6 am two days a week. It is getting easier and easier to do swim lengths that really used to challenge me, I noticed that at 1000m that I was really just starting to feel like I have been in the water for a while, that used to happen within 500m initially.

July 11 There was no one at the pool and so they set up the longer lengths and I was able to swim for longer before having to turn around. Either that or me sped up my time 5 minutes from my last swim and I added on a length (of this longer pool)! Go me!

July 12 It was a really gorgeous day and I rode my bike 5 km to the pool and completed my swim. What surprised me was that I was warmed up and energize from biking and my pace was quicker on my first lap. Had a strong swim and really enjoyed today’s affirmation!

July 13 Sometimes the best part of the swim is getting to sit in the hot tub and reflect after. In just two more swims I will be achieving my goal. I will do it!

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SELF-CHANGE PROJECT REPORT 25

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