Oct 19

Moving Away from Mind Traps

In a previous blog, we reviewed ten common mind traps or cognitive distortions.  They are Black and White Thinking, Overgeneralizations, Mental Filters, Disqualifying the Positive, Mind Reading, Catastrophizing, Personalization, “Should” Statements, Labeling, and Always Being Right.  Listed below are five steps to shift away from a mental Mind Trap once you find yourself in one. 

•  Notice your mood.  It starts with catching yourself in a bad mood.  What negative feelings are you having about yourself, a situation, or someone else?  Negative feelings are a good indicator that you may be a Mind Trap.  Write down the troublesome thoughts to examine later.
•  Identify the Mind Trap.  Review the list of ten common Mind Traps to see which distortion most closely matches your thinking.  This allows you to think about your situation is a more natural and realistic way.
•  Identify the Situation or Trigger.  Recall the experience that was the basis for your negative thinking.  
•  Assess the consequences.  What resulted from your negative thoughts, feelings, or behaviors?  What are you gaining from feeling bad?  A cost-benefit analysis will help you assess both the advantages and disadvantages of distorted thinking.  It will be difficult to change your thinking and behaviors if there is a strong benefit or secondary gain.  
•  Move away from the Mind Trap by expanding your focus.  When you expand your focus, you will be able to see things you were able to see before and hear things that were previously ignored.  Here are several other tips to help you move away from Mind Traps:
  • Ask yourself what did you notice, appreciate, and believe about the situation. 
  • Move away from either/or thinking by evaluating things on a scale of 0 to 100.  This lets you celebrate partial successes.
  • An alternative to negative self-talk is to talk to yourself in the same compassionate and caring way you would talk to a friend.
  • Ask what you learned from the situation.  
  • Seek the opinions of others to determine if your thoughts and attitudes are realistic.
  • Redirect your energy toward pursuing a resolution to problems or identifying ways to cope with predicaments.
  • Look at the specific behavior or pattern that led you to assign a negative label to yourself or someone else in order to include the entire person.  There is always something to admire, even if it is the passion which they hold on to their beliefs.