Distorted Thinking
Gaining a clear grasp of your identity, values, and priorities is crucial for dispelling misconceptions about your capabilities. Benjamin K. Bergen, author of "Louder than Words" and a professor, explores the concept of embodied simulation, where individuals construct virtual experiences in their minds, shaping their understanding of meaning and reality.
These constructed experiences, though not factual, occur throughout your waking and sleeping hours, leading to an inner dialogue that can guide you in detrimental directions. Distorted information distorts your thinking and perspective, contributing to a list of styles that perpetuate this distortion.
Examine each style below with a focus on recognizing potential distortions in your thinking. Awareness serves as the initial catalyst for transformation. Following this, the responsibility to take action lies with you: devise a straightforward method for change, whether it involves structuring, creating a system, or establishing a schedule. Subsequently, monitor your daily advancements to ensure consistent progress.
Distorted Thinking Styles
Filtering You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation.
Polarized Thinking Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you're a failure. There is no middle ground. '
Overgeneralization You come to a general conclusion, usually based on an incident of distorted thinking.
Mind Reading Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to figure out how people are feeling toward you.
Catastrophizing You expect disaster. You notice or hear about a problem and start "what if's": what if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?
Personalization Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking, etc
Control Fallacies If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.
Fallacy of Fairness You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you.
Blaming You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other track and blame yourself for every problem or reversal.
Shoulds You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.
Emotional Reasoning You believe that what you feel must be true -- automatically. If you feelstupid and boring, then you mustbestupid or boring.
Fallacy of Change You expect that other people will change to suit you. You need to change people because your hopes for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.
Global Labeling You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment
Being Right You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness.
Reward Fallacy You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to pay off, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn't come.
