Don't Believe Everything You Think
Hello FPA and happy September! This month I wanted to share some thoughts with you about something I work with almost all of my patients on. My first meeting with a patient I usually set the expectation that in therapy we will often think about how we think and talk about how we talk. I know that might sound a little funky, but it's true! We don't take much time in our day to day lives to think about how we're thinking and talk about how we're talking. Our thoughts are so automatic within our own minds, but not every thought we have is accurate or helpful. Read that again real quick… not everything we think is true. Not every thought reflects a fact or a full reality. Each of our thoughts are influenced by past experiences, emotions, or biases. Sometimes our brains fall into patterns that overlook or neglect certain truths. We might get caught in black and white thoughts, or overgeneralizations, or catastrophizing. Black and white thoughts might sound like "If I ...