Behavior modification requires strong initiative and discipline on the part of the client. More than these, it requires that you be willing to let go of old habits that have been unsatisfying or destructive and work to form new, more rewarding habits. In the beginning, forcing yourself to behave in new ways may feel like pretense or dishonesty. This is a common experience and should not be allowed to block your desire to change. Unfamiliar and even uncomfortable ways of behaving do become familiar and more comfortable the more they are practiced. If these new ways of behaving come to offer satisfactions or compensations that old habits did not, they will gradually be absorbed into your own sense of personal identity. What at first may feel to you like an act slowly is made a part of your personality until a habit is established that feels entirely natural. This takes time, patience, practice, and more practice. COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE Behavioral psychotherapists use a variety of techniques designed to help clients control their own behavior and individual physical responses more effectively. _Biofeedback_ Biofeedback can help many people gain control over habitual, automatic processes. Biofeedback equipment can be used to teach you how to reduce tension, develop skills to bring about relaxation, or cope more successfully with chronic pain. (For a detailed discussion of biofeedback, see Chapter 15.) {179} _Thought Stopping_ Thought stopping can help you break chains of negative and self-undermining thoughts. Thought stopping is a technique that begins by having you think out loud during therapy sessions. If you repeatedly express negative, troubling thoughts, the therapist shouts, "Stop!" In this way, you are made acutely aware of self-destructive thinking habits. You gradually learn to stop yourself from trapping yourself in upsetting thoughts by silently commanding your mind to "stop!" It is a simple but often effective technique, related to two techniques we have already discussed: the push-button technique of Adlerian psychotherapy (see Chapter 11) and the technique of disputing your own irrational beliefs in rational-emotive therapy (see Chapter 10). _Problem Solving and Decision Making_ These techniques have been developed to help clients solve personal problems and make life decisions more effectively. Behavioral therapists who offer assistance of this kind emphasize the importance in problem solving and decision making of several factors.