How to Escape The 5 Most Common Thinking Traps

Often in our day to day lives we use thought patterns that don’t serve us. Instead of empowering, they undermine.
Historically psychology dealt with fixing mental health problems like depression, anxiety or OCD.
If you think of the stereotypical glass half full, the goal was just to get your glass to the half mark, not to see the potential to fill the cup even more.
Positive psychology is exploring the previously uncharted territory of building emotional health. This means that after there is a stable mental health foundation, we can go beyond surviving to thriving with a few tweaks to the process of thinking. You can begin filling your own cup.
If you are like me, you probably do a pretty good job of this when things are going well, when you are energized, and when you feel in control. Here are three tips on how to keep resilient when you are feeling busy, out-of-control, or overwhelmed.

Know the Negative Thinking Traps
There are 5 negative thinking traps that you can easily fall into. Most of us have a predominant trap that resonates more with our own thought process.

1 .Mind Reading
This is the belief that everyone thinks alike. You know how you think and therefor you think you know what people around you are thinking. The converse is also implied as true-others know your wants and needs without you having to tell them.

2. Me Thinking
A me thinker believes that when things o wrong it is their fault. The believe they are the root of the problem.

3. You Thinking
The you thinker believes that other people or circumstances are always at fault (these people have a large circle of others.

4. Catastrophic Thinkers
Catastrophic thinkers are always stuck in their heads. They have a tendency to anticipate the worst case scenario and they get stuck in anxiety as though their prophecies were reality.

5. Helplessness
Helpless thinking would have you believe that there is nothing you can do to change a situation or to create a better outcome.

Use These 3 Techniques to Outwit Your PatternsWhen our patterns become problematic it is indicative that our thinking has become rigid. We see problems as insurmountable due to the lack of flexibility or resilience in our thinking.
The good news is that The mind can be stretched in the same ways as our bodies- with repeated action moving towards the desired outcome.

These real-time hacks from UPenn Resiliency Training will immediately increase your optimism leading to greater reliance as they become new thoughts patterns.

1. Use Evidence
 
Disprove your negative thoughts by finishing this sentence:

“That’s not true because________________________.”
 
2. Reframe

Look from another angle using the sentence:

“A more helpful way to see this would be_____________________________.”
 
3. Plan

This one is especially useful for catastrophic thinkers:
“If _________________happens, I will ____________________.”
 
I’d love to hear from you- which type of thinking trap do you fall into most (for me it can be the MIND READING) and which techniques  you think will help you. (I’m a fan of the reframe).

Thanks for reading and keep taking daily steps to keep yourself on the happiness trajectory!