Overcoming Negative Thought Patterns

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The original list featured in Dr. Burns The Feeling Good Handbook, which itself was derived from the book Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond by J. Beck and A. Beck, includes 10 negative thought patterns/cognitive errors.

These cognitive errors were identified in efforts to increase awareness of negative thought patterns that we often allow to change our moods/perceptions of ourselves.

I shortened the list down to 5, as many of them overlap.

1) Catastrophizing

Catastrophizing is a dash of pessimism mixed with a sprinkle of self-doubt and a whole lot of anxiety. This common negative thought pattern causes us to exaggerate possible future problems.

More often than not, the catastrophizing is done without any evidential basis indicating the presence or future presence of a problem.

Ever find yourself feeling anxious about an outcome of a situation that is highly unlikely? You’re catastrophizing!

This negative thought pattern is rooted in fear and therefore is incredibly inhibitory.

Related-> Essential Prompts to Challenge Your Negative Self Talk

2) Black or White Thinking

Balance ain’t easy. Our brains love to categorize things and neatly place them on a mental spectrum.

#realtalk ~ balance isn’t in my vocabulary. it’s funny because as a dancer, balance is my strongsuit. but in life, yeah not so much… – i’m always going 1000% on something, working my booty off and sacrificing time and energy to pursue just one thing in my life.☝🏽 – whether it’s dedication to training, “clean” eating, school, or work, i’m always overworking something and neglecting something else that’s important- like sleep, health, etc. 🤷🏽‍♀️ – i seriously just realized a few days ago how MUCH i’ve been neglecting my health and over-investing myself in my work. it’s so unlike me to have to drag my feet to the gym or struggle to keep my regular healthy habits, but that has been the case lately.🙇🏽‍♀️ – SISTAS, i need your help! how do your pursue balance in your day to day lives. i know that YOU TOO are super busy with school, work, family/friends, health, etc…. how do you keep the balance and keep your sanity!?!🌸🌸🌸 – – – – – #helpasisterout #dancerlife #balanceiskey #selfcarematters #overalls #bloguettes #purposedriven #workaholic #theinstagramlab #risingtidesociety #bossgirlbloggers #walltraveled

A post shared by Zahra Biabani (@soulfulseedblog) on Apr 21, 2018 at 1:40pm PDT

It’s easy to identify what lies on either extremes of the spectrum, but hard to discern what falls in the middle.

As eager-to-learn elementary school students, we are taught to identify antonyms with proficiency- good opposes bad, dirty opposes clean, small opposes big. As often quick-to-judge adults, we subconsciously label people/things with similar speed.

Dichotomous thinking is what judgment thrives off of. This thinking doesn’t allow room for sort ofs, maybes, ifs, perhaps, kind ofs, or places in between.

[bctt tweet=”It’s easy to identify what lies on either extremes of the spectrum, but hard to discern what falls in the middle.” username=”soulfulseedblog”]

Applying this sort of thinking to ourselves can be self antagonizing; only ever thinking of ourselves very positively or very negatively results in very turbulent emotions.

3) Magnification/Minimization

Also known as mental filtering, this cognitive error/thought pattern is exhibited when the mind perseverates on a certain negative occurrence.

Magnifying on this negative incidence, we tend to neglect thinking about anything positive (minimization).

Being cognizant of this negative thought pattern enables us to more clearly see everything that is going on around and within us on a level playing field.

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4) Emotional Reasoning

Contrary to popular belief, human beings aren’t primarily rational. We are in fact swayed by fleeting emotions a majority of the time.

Emotional reasoning is pretty much when we allow our emotions, however skewed they may be, affect what we think is true.

If we feel bad for failing, emotional reasoning tells us that this bad feeling implies that we are a failure.

[bctt tweet=”feeling like a failure does NOT equal being a failure!!! don’t let your mind be victim to emotional reasoning.” username=”soulfulseedblog”]

5) Imposed Standards- “Should” Statements

We say these “should” statements in efforts to make ourselves better and impose certain expectations upon ourselves… but they usually just imbue us with a sense of guilt that can tarnish our self-perceptions.

There is nothing that we SHOULD do, but there are infinitely many things that we COULD do.

Rephrasing “shoulds” into “coulds” relieves you of guilt while motivating you to act based on your best judgment.

[bctt tweet=”Turn your “should” statements into “could” statements and witness how this liberation results in more effective action. ” username=”soulfulseedblog”]

Did any of these negative thought patterns remind you of ways you have talked to yourself before?

Now that you know they are common to pretty much every human, how can you remind yourself to ignore these cognitive errors?

Let me know!