How to stop believing your thoughts

1:41 PM CBT , depression , freud , negative thoughts , positive thoughts , thoughts 0 Comments

Arguably, the biggest single impact on your day is the constant stream of thoughts that ran through your mind. More specifically, the quality of those thoughts: negative or positive. Essentially, your emotions are simply your body’s reaction to your thoughts.

Of course, many of your thoughts are useful! They get you through the day and help you solve any problems that may arise. Some of them are even life-changing shifts in perception or epiphanies that shape you as a person. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, proposed that our thoughts – all of them - have meaning and ought to be given credence. Freud’s writings and theories have influenced psychology more than any other person; today’s Freudian psychologists will, for the most part, analyze your thoughts as meaningful indicators of your subconscious desires and drives.

However, in the last 30 years, the field of psychology has been shifting moving more and more towards the idea that many of our thoughts lack truth and are not grounded in reality. The therapy associated with this view is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. CBT largely focuses on taking the negative thoughts that involuntarily take up time and energy in your mind (Dr. Aaron Beck, one of the founders of CBT, calls them “automatic negative thoughts”) and replacing them with more positive thoughts. Patients are urged to challenge the negative thoughts w hen they arise, and for the most part people see improvement in mood much faster than with Freudian psychoanalysis.

Spend a day observing your mind. This can feel foreign at first, since most of us have come to assume that we are our thoughts. Whenever I feel myself getting agitated by my thoughts, I know I’m identifying with them. To get back to being the observer, I imagine my thoughts as a waterfall, and myself as the space behind the waterfall. 

When a negative thought arises, stop and consider it. Does it actually make sense? Is it constructive or simply fatalistic? Take your thought and hold it up against reality. Does the thought stay in tact or crumble? Let us know!