The Thinking Traps

 

Thinking Traps are the WORST!

They make me scream when I realize I am caught in the thinking trap. They are so sneaky, unless we know what they are we don't know we are stuck in one, which causes a downward spiral of negative thinking. Like I wrote earlier, they are the absolute WORST. We have to snap our brain out of a thinking trap when we find ourselves in one. 


The first thing to do is to identify the thinking trap you are in. 

Fortune-Telling (Catastrophizing): Predicting that something bad will happen, without any evidence. “I never ride my bike, because if I did, a truck would run me over.”

All or Nothing Thinking (Black and White Thinking): Seeing things as only right or wrong, good or bad, perfect or terrible and often see a small mistake as a total failure. “I told myself I’d eat healthier, but I caved and ate pizza today. I am a failure. I might as well just binge out now…”

Overgeneralization: Making sweeping negative conclusion that go far beyond the current situation. words like “always” or “never” are often used. “This always happens to me.” “I’ll never figure this out.”

Mind-reading: Jumping to conclusions about what others are thinking, without any evidence “She definitely thinks I’m stupid.”

Labeling: Overgeneralization is taken a step further by the use extreme language to describe things. Typically displayed through saying only negative things about yourself or other people. “I’m an idiot.” “I’m a loser.”

Emotional Reasoning: Believing that bad feelings or emotions are facts, “I feel…” “therefore…”. “I get anxiety when I’m in airports, so airports are just awful places.”

Mental Filter: You develop selective hearing and vision, only seeing and hearing the one thing (typically negative), often discounting the positive in the process. “My supervisor gave me a bad rating on this one aspect of my job in my evaluation [that also had other positive ratings], I must be doing a bad job.”

Disqualifying the Positive: Good or positive experiences, actions, or qualities don’t count. “I did well in that basketball game because I got lucky.”

“Should” Statements: Telling yourself how you “should” or “need to” act. “I should feel happy right now.” “I should never feel anxious.”

Personalization: You see yourself as the cause of things you have no control over or the target of stuff that has nothing to do with you. “The receptionist was short with me because I did nothing wrong.”

The second thing you do is to use wise mind to make a reasoned based decision based on your feelings, facts, and the situation about how you want to respond to the situation. How you respond is entirely up to you, because you know yourself better than anyone else.  


See my video  about thinking traps 



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