Cognitive distortions: How to not think in extremes

How to get rid of our biases and exaggerated views and learn to see whole picture and be truth centred.

While facing daily situations in life, our mind responds with thoughts and feelings. These thoughts and feelings are often unconscious (arising from the depths of our minds of which we do not have  any awareness). Sometimes these thoughts can be agitating, frustrating, obsessive, confusing – basically unhelpful and arise along with unwholesome feelings that make us feel low, heavy or helpless. We find it difficult to come out of such places. These thoughts could be resulting from our past experiences, beliefs, biases, peer influences, or other’s viewpoints that are subconscious and may not always be true or reality based.  Such thoughts and feelings then reinforce our previous mental patterns and keep us stuck in a cycle of suffering.

Sometimes these thinking patterns can be extreme like imagining the worst in a situation, feeling like a complete failure when the truth is something else, or labelling ourselves like “I am bad”, “I am incapable” etc. Such kind of thinking is very common and is called a Cognitive distortion- we are so overwhelmed with emotions or beliefs that we can’t see the reality at all. And so we become distorted in our thinking. In order to free ourselves from such patterns, it is necessary to activate the lawyer in us who looks for evidence and facts within the present reality which facilitates realistic thoughts, helpful behaviors and wholesome feelings.

Let us proceed forward to deal with our thoughts effectively and feel the emotions which are aligned with our reality. The course is going to give you helpful insights through which you can learn to think, behave, and feel in a healthy manner. Are you ready? Let’s begin our journey.