"Thinking traps" are mental misrepresentations of reality. They trigger negative emotions and misguided behaviors.
Have you every misread a situation? Over reacted? Been needlessly worried? Misjudged somebody? We all have!
Listen for the thinking traps you're telling yourself and hearing from others. Some of the more common ones include -
- Should/ought/must thinking - having ironclad expectations of how things "should", "ought" or "must" be
- Catastrophic thinking - always assuming the worst possible outcome, intent or explanation
- "All-or-nothing" thinking - things are either GREAT! or TERRIBLE! Theres no in-between.
- Fortune telling - convincing yourself that one particular outcome is guaranteed
- Over generalization - viewing a single temporary event as a general or permanent state of affairs
- Mind reading - assuming what others are thinking
- Emotional reasoning - taking our emotions as evidence of the truth
PRACTICE TIP - see if you can track a negative emotion like fear, anger or sadness to a thinking trap. For example, "catastrophic thinking" typically triggers fear, and "mind reading" often triggers "anger".
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