How to Increase Mindfulness of Thoughts
When we are feeling down, it can help to remember that bad moods often trigger errors in our thinking that make our thoughts overly negative and inaccurate. Learning these common errors can help us recognize when a thought isn’t accurate, and it reminds us not to believe our thoughts automatically. In a low mood, we can notice which errors are present and then challenge our thoughts more effectively. Increasing mindfulness of thoughts and thinking processes can help us meet these errors with ease and curiosity.
This worksheet is a mindfulness practice that can sit alongside professional support, not replace it. If a low mood lasts or feels heavy, a doctor or therapist can help.
What Are Common Errors in Thinking?
If you find yourself jumping to conclusions, making assumptions that turn out to be false, or perceiving things in ways that don’t reflect the whole truth, you may be caught in misguided or narrow thinking. The worksheet outlines these common errors in thinking, each with an example:
- All-or-nothing thinking: viewing things in black or white, so that anything less than perfect counts as a failure.
- Mental filter (similar to tunnel vision): dwelling on a single negative event or aspect while ignoring the whole picture.
- Discounting the positive: rejecting the positive parts of an experience and finding reasons why they don’t count.
- Emotional reasoning: thinking that because a feeling is present, it must be true and a direct reflection of reality.
- Overgeneralization: taking one negative outcome and applying it to all areas of life, often with words like “always” and “never.”
- Jumping to conclusions: mind reading (assuming we know what someone else is thinking) and fortune telling (predicting a negative outcome).
- Personalization and blame: believing we are solely responsible for an outcome, or holding someone else fully responsible without examining our own part.
- Labeling: applying a fixed, broad label to ourselves or others, such as “I’m worthless” or “He is a selfish person.”
- Denial of change: becoming upset or indignant about the reality that our lives, and the people and situations in them, are always changing.
Once we know what these are, we are better able to recognize them when they arise. Here is one example of how this might be practiced in real time:
Consider that you are out for lunch and the waiter who is serving your table rolls their eyes when they drop off your meal. You might think to yourself, “She is clearly rude, or she has a personal problem with me.” In this instance, you are likely jumping to conclusions. What you might do when you notice these thoughts arise is:
- Notice that you have just jumped to a conclusion about the waiter. What assumptions or judgments have you made? Do not judge or condemn yourself for this; simply notice what happened.
- Come into your body or into your breath to soften the mind. Let the tension of the situation dissolve in its own time.
- Then, see if you might consider other alternatives. What else might be going on here? Could this person be going through something difficult? Could you have misinterpreted something? Mindfulness of thoughts invites us to remain open and curious. Explore with patience and compassion.
Where These Ideas Come From
According to the worksheet, the theory behind common errors in thinking (also called cognitive distortions) was first developed by psychologist Aaron Beck and later popularized by others, including Dr. David Burns in his book The Feeling Good Handbook. Most of the errors presented in this worksheet come from Dr. Burns’ book.
A Caution
Everyone has these errors in their thinking. Please be careful not to judge or beat up on yourself when you notice them. Becoming aware of these patterns can offer an opportunity to see when we are not thinking accurately, and then to notice and correct them with compassion.
