In our session we focused on Cognitive distortions - basically patterns of thinking that are biased or inaccurate. Imagine you're wearing a pair of glasses that makes you see things in a certain way, even if that's not how things really are. These "thought glasses" can sometimes make you feel bad or think negatively about yourself, others, or situations. Cognitive distortions can mess with your mood and how you perceive the world around you. Below, the 4 different ways that our brain can play tricks on us.

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#1 Emotional Reasoning

Where logic is removed from a situation and (often irrational) feelings override your mind. For example, we know that flying is statistically safer than driving, but we can convince ourselves that a plane is going to be more likely to crash simply because we feel it... 

 

#2 Disqualifying Positives

Where we only ever see the negative in a situation. For example, if we get a lot of praise with one piece of constructive feedback, we will tend to only focus on the constructive feedback... or the one thing we said wrong on a date, in an interview... Think about how sensitive we can be when we read messages and why we feel the need to qualify what we say with emojis and exclamation marks!

 

#3 All Or Nothing

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Where we only believe in good or bad, great or terrible, beautiful or hideous. There is no room for things to be a bit of both or for there to be some 'grey' area.

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#4 Catastrophising

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Where we immediately jump to the worst conclusion despite having none of the facts, for example when a friend is running late and we haven't heard from them, we might immediately believe that they must have been in an accident.

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In case you want to explore this subject further, the video below will give you a helpful reminder of what the different cognitive distortions mean.