Written by therapist Fallyn Lara
Have you ever stopped yourself from reaching out to that person, asking for that raise, or taking that job offer because your thoughts told you otherwise? In moments of unknown or uncertainty, our thoughts can go rampant, if we let them. They can tell us, “it’s not going to work out,” or, “they’re probably going to ignore you anyways,” or, “that’s too risky for you to try so don’t try.” Many times in our lives, we can allow our thoughts to be facts even if there are so many more things that are proving those “facts” as false.
What is it about our thoughts that can take us captive? Our thoughts can be powerful enough to chain us to the weight of fear, comfort and even insecurity. I am sure you can find times in your life when you let your negative thoughts take the “driver’s seat.” What happens when that driver is actually the reason for your multiple detours, crashes and pit stops? Yes, this may sound intense and you may think I’m giving too much credit to your thoughts, but I would say, what if, you’re not giving enough credit to them?
Automatic Thoughts
In psychology, there is this term called “automatic thoughts” which comes from the master himself, Aaron Beck’s theory of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Theory). In essence, these are preconscious thoughts that come rapidly in our minds in any and all scenarios. These thoughts can be both rational or not, but our focus is on those negative thoughts, you know, the ones that take us on those life detours. Beck elaborates on these thoughts even further to what we call, “Cognitive errors,” which categorizes those negative thoughts.
Types of Cognitive Errors
Selective Abstraction: paying attention to only a small piece of what is happening in order to prove your view of the situation.
Arbitrary inference: making an assumption or conclusion even if there are contradictions or no evidence to support this conclusion.
Overgeneralization: using one or two events to be the “truth” for all other events.
Magnification and Minimization: the part of a situation or attribute is highlighted to be the main focus or dismissed completely.
Personalization: you think that you are “to blame” for external situations even if there is no evidence to support that.
Absolutistic thinking: looking at things, people, or events as either all one way or all another way.
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