Your Cognitive Distortions are Ruining Your Life
“Your self cannot be equated with any one thing you do. Your life is a complex and ever-changing flow of thoughts, emotions, and actions. To put it another way, you are more like a river than a statue.” — David D. Burns
A great thing about glasses is that they change how you view the world. A not so great thing about glasses is that they change how you view the world. On the one hand, you could be seeing things you never saw before. On the other hand, you could be seeing things you never saw before (or miss things that are actually there) which could lead to your downfall.
A cognitive distortion is like a pair of glasses your mind wears but aren’t your prescription. The distortion takes what you experience and changes its meaning, either by adding some thought or subtracting the context.
Psychiatrist David D. Burns outlined fifteen cognitive distortions in his book, The Feeling Good Handbook. The distortions listed are not only unnervingly familiar, but even the least self-aware will admit to having done some of these.
For the sake of brevity and ease of mental digestion, I’ve grouped the fifteen distortions into four categories.
Lazy Thinking
In lazy thinking, the cognitive distortions of overgeneralization, black and white…
