What Are Thinking Errors And How Can We Fight Them?

Thoughts are spiritual products that come from our ability to “work” with our minds. In other words, our ability to think and interpret everything that happens around us and in our inner world.

We humans spend our days, our hours and our whole lives in mind. We evaluate what happens to us and think of irrelevant and abstract things. Sometimes we even produce thoughts that embarrass us. Sometimes we travel in our own minds to the past or the future.

In short, our ability to think is immense and the ability to manage it is an essential part of maintaining good mental health. Our thoughts define our feelings and these in turn define our behavior. We call thoughts that make us experience unhealthy feelings, negative automatic emotions, delusions, or cognitive distortions. However, not all of our thoughts evoke meaningful feelings. For example, if I think  “dog barks,” it  is very likely that this will not cause any reaction on an emotional level.

It would be a different matter if I thought “dog barks”  and immediately gave it the meaning  “it means the dog is angry and might attack me”. In this case, the scenario changes completely because I think it’s about my survival or my honor. It’s dangerous and means I should activate the anxiety response and all that it means.

Some typical thought errors

There are many of my misconceptions but we focus on analyzing the ones that I think are the most typical, the ones that can most clearly bother us.

Fortune teller

This distortion arises when you are sure that the other person is thinking something specific. The same thing happens when you think something is going on and you could even bet on the probability of such an event happening.

This is clearly not logical because no one, absolutely no one, will be able to predict what will happen in the future, what others will think, or even what your own mind will think or do in a couple of years. So why are we so sure of what is happening or will happen? Or do we have an imaginary crystal ball that tells us about these things? 

Black and white thoughts

Through this thought error, you place certain traits or characteristics at the extremes of the scale without considering that  everything is just not black and white. There is also a whole spectrum of gray. How many times have you told yourself that everything went wrong because you made a mistake? Ask yourself: how can one mistake make everything bad? Don’t you exaggerate a little?

Personalization

You often think of yourself as the center of the universe, for better or worse. You also think that others are constantly dependent on you, what you do or don’t do, how you dress, what you say, etc.

The reality is that everyone is caught up in their own problems and not in everyone else’s life. And if that’s not the case, it’s a problem you should really look at better!

As you may have already guessed,  this mistake makes you take everything personally. This way you end up feeling great anxiety, guilt, shyness, etc.

Thinking catastrophically

You usually make this mistake when you exaggerate reality so much that, without any evidence, you see threats and potential dangers everywhere. And you always think  “what if?”, “What if I cancel?”, “What if my girlfriend leaves me?”, “What if I’m sick?”.  To all of these questions, you add the adjective “terrible” and live as if it had actually already happened, as if it were a disaster from which you could not recover.

How can I make my thinking more neutral?

Keep in mind that all of these thinking errors emerge from different beliefs that have been deeply rooted in our being since childhood. Objectivity is a process that takes time and effort but it can help you feel better. 

If you follow these tips, you will become a more scientific and sensible person with fewer misconceptions:

Interpret reality with your five senses alone

We can get to know our own reality only by observing it, touching it, tasting it, listening to it, and smelling it. There is no sixth sense that could give us any more information. Therefore, be aware of what you are currently living in, with your five senses. This moment is the reality you have access to. What happens in the future or in another place or in another person’s mind is not your reality and you can’t really know it either.

Ask yourself scientific questions

If you want to feel your reality, in addition to using your five senses, you can ask yourself things like:  How can I be sure that my colleague is criticizing me? What evidence do I have that I will have an accident if I drive a car? What are the chances that I really have the disease?

Be aware of where those thoughts come from

As we have mentioned, delusions come from beliefs. They are like the roots of a tree and cognitive errors are its flowers. Analyze what beliefs you have and then you will know why you are experiencing these distortions. Do you need love to be happy? Do you believe that worrying will help you solve your problem? Do you believe that a certain type of person is evil and deserves to be punished?

Run experiments

Just as if you were a scientist,  you should conduct experiments that confirm whether your thoughts are true or false. For example, if you think someone is talking about you behind your back, you need to be brave and ask that person if it is true.

Their answers will help you understand if it was all you invented or if it really happened. This person may lie to you but you can’t influence it! So focus on the things you can solve and forget the rest.