10 Common Thinking Errors Workbook - Well-being
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Summary
This workbook lists 10 thinking errors that might negatively impact one's well-being. It details each error and provides practical ways to overcome them. Learning to identify and challenge these thinking errors can significantly enhance one's psychological well-being.
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10 Common Thinking Errors 1. Black & White Thinking Thinking in absolutes, good or bad, no middle ground Using extreme labels, “He is a failure”, “I am hopeless”, “I will never be able to do..” Basing extreme judgements on a single event Antidote: Think in s...
10 Common Thinking Errors 1. Black & White Thinking Thinking in absolutes, good or bad, no middle ground Using extreme labels, “He is a failure”, “I am hopeless”, “I will never be able to do..” Basing extreme judgements on a single event Antidote: Think in shades of grey and develop “both/and” and “and” instead of “or” reasoning skills 2. Awfulizing - catastrophizing Magnifying and exaggerating the importance of events or how awful or pleasant they are Overestimating the chances of disaster Viewing setbacks as a never ending pattern of defeat Antidote: Put your thoughts into perspective and consider less awful explanations 8 3. Personalizing Taking responsibility for anything bad even if it has little to do with you Thinking everything is one’s own fault Antidote: Remove yourself from the centre stage and consider other options that don’t involve you 4. Negative Focus - discounting the positive Focusing on the negative aspects of a situation or a person and ignoring or misinterpreting positive aspects Focusing on weaknesses and forgetting strengths Filtering out positive comments and focusing on the negative ones Antidote: Practice being more objective/realistic and accepting positive feedback 5. Generalization Taking an isolated event and turning it into a fixed pattern Using labels like, always, never, everything, nothing Antidote: Replace generalized words with more accurate ones, like “sometimes” and “often” as well as actively putting events in perspective and using accurate descriptive words for them. 6. Blaming Needing to find a culprit in every situation Tending to blame outside situations and people for how you feel Antidote: Reflecting on your own contribution to the situation and taking control of one’s own responses and feelings. 7. Fortune telling - Jumping to conclusions Making negative interpretations or assumptions in the absence of definite facts Predicting the future by assuming other people’s intentions and actions Antidote: Consider that your guess no matter how convincing it is to you, might be wrong and think of other options 9 8. Fixed rules and demands Having fixed rules and unrealistic expectation of self and others Regularly using words such as “must”, “should” and “have to” More rigid = more angry, disappointed, depressed and guilty one feels Antidote: Practice flexibility and replace “musts” and “have to’s” with “It would be nice if” and “I wish” 9. Emotional Reasoning Feelings are used as hard evidence Feelings and mood are distorting view of reality Antidote: Pause and ask yourself if there is hard evidence to support the feelings experienced 10. Low Frustration Tolerance Assuming that something will be very difficult, intolerable or unbearable Magnifying how bad something is and minimizing one’s capacity to cope, tolerate or overcome. Antidote: Reflect on past successes. Realize that you are able to do something even if it is difficult in the short run, if it will be good for you in the long run. 10
