Hello Everyone & Welcome Back to the RealPositiveGirl Podcast!
Thank you so much for joining me again!
Happy Wednesday!
This week's theme for the podcast is: Cognitive Distortions
This week I want to talk about 5 specific Cognitive Distortions & how these thought patterns affect us on the daily.
Cognitive distortions are unhealthy ways of thinking that can cause your mind to spin out of control. These can also lead to increased anxiety & depression.
More specifically it would be irrational & exaggerated thoughts that are highly based in negative thoughts. And a lot of times this thought pattern is habitual, which creates more problems as time goes on because this type of behavior isn’t helpful in the least.
Here are some notes from today's episode:
- Mind reading! This is the one I have been looking forward to talking about the most because it’s the one I struggle with the most. Mind reading is believing you know what someone is thinking without having enough information to actually know. And again, I would lump this in with assumptions.
- Mind reading is a dangerous cognitive distortion because it allows you to believe things that are generally not true, create a story in your mind & go on a spiral in your mind.
- An example would be seeing a friend while out, but they don’t see you & you take that as them ignoring you on purpose, which can spiral into thinking they are upset with you, don’t want to be your friend any longer, and continue from there.
- You see how thinking you know how someone is feeling can really send you on a mental journey that will mislead you & cause you to all turned around in your head. Also, it can ruin relationships if you opt for mind reading instead of proper communication.
- And it’s fair to mention that a tiny bit of mind-reading can be appropriate if you are paring it with general social cues & reactions from others. Like telling someone something they weren’t expecting to hear & thinking they are surprised if their reaction shows that.
- I want to share with you some tips on how to work through practicing mind reading less and less.
- 1. Acknowledge the thoughts & predictions you are having about the situation. Really let those thoughts out & examine what those actually mean.
- 2. Weighing the costs & benefits can really help you determine if this prediction is beneficial. Examine the cost of what you could lose with believing this prediction & what benefits there could be to having that prediction.
- 3. Find the evidence that will back-up your prediction. Ask yourself what you actually know to be true. Is this thought out of character for the person you are placing it on?
- 4. Test your prediction. This will involve confidence & you will have to reach out to the person your prediction falls on or have faith your mind is playing tricks and wait it out.
Please share this podcast with anyone that may need this encouragement!
Thank you again for listening & I hope this episode was helpful.
Come visit me on my Instagram page @sabrinajoyperozzo to say hi!
Have any questions, comments or feedback? Send me an email at realpositivegirlpodcast@gmail.com or visit my website: www.sabrinajoy.com
See you for Thursday's episode!
Support the show
Watch the Video Version of RPG: https://www.youtube.com/@realpositivegirl/podcasts
Buy the Planner on AMAZON!: https://amzn.to/3WwthT2
Visit me on Instagram or TikTok: @sabrinajoyperozzo
Email Me: realpositivegirlpodcast@gmail.com
