Too close to see our own hypocrisy, we miss that what we condemn, is often what we do not want to see in ourself. Journal Prompt: What do I project on others, that I do not want to see in myself?
Category: Mindfulness
Thinking Patterns, 8
Someone is angry, it must be my fault. - Personalization, the thinking pattern that over indulges in responsibility for others. It believes you are responsible for what other people are experiencing. Like a kitchen sponge, when feelings are spilt out into the universe, you anxiously soak them up. Over burdened. Over responsible. Over functioning. - Journal Prompt: I feel over responsible when...
Thinking Patterns, 7
Catastrophic Thinking. Worse-case scenarios and a rolodex of fear-mongering possibilities. It sounds like... A fire truck is headed in the direction of my house. I probably left the stove on. My house is on fire. The insurance won't cover it because I was a day late on my last payment. We will have to move away. Change schools. Get new jobs. And life as we know it will be altered forever. It is primal. It functions to prepare and protect. Your brain sees a possibility—it ignores probability—and races to be ready for survival. Journal Prompt: My catastrophic thinking says...
Thinking Patterns, 6
Unfocused / Avoidant Inattentive states are compensated. They reward you with blocked emotions, filtered memories, and diluted pain. A safe, chaotic distance. Consequently, it also keeps you from a connected life. Journal Prompt: Unfocused thinking helps me...
Thinking Patterns, 5
I am alone, screams the cornering thinking patterns of shame. Journal Prompt: ...are the thought patterns that leave me feeling alone.
Thinking Patterns, 4
A thought pattern of minimizing teaches you to distrust yourself. The person I am in a relationship with talks to me in an abusive way. It's not all the time... It’s not that bad... As if you are talking yourself out of a lived experience, minimizing the problem, the impact, and experience. Minimizing happens when we are afraid of change, conflict avoidant, or having difficulty being honest with ourselves. Journal Prompt: I find myself minimizing when...
Thinking Patterns, 3
identity. Negative emotions are far more oppressive if the ones you feel become an identity. You have power to give your emotions visiting hours, unhooking and mining distance from your emotions. I am having the thought that I am not enough. I am having the thought that I am a shameful person. You are experiencing a thought. You are not the thought.
Thinking Patterns, 2
binary. Binary thinking is the thought pattern of rigidity and inflexibility. The perspective is, all or nothing. When you are identifying abuse, binary thinking is helpful, abuse is abuse, there does not need to be gray. But when your thought patterns discuss your competence and worthiness, gray needs to be invited to the conversation. Journal Prompt: A less binary way to describe myself would be...
Thinking Patterns, 1
Fusion. Fused thinking believes that your thoughts and your being are the same. I think that I don't belong, then I must not belong. There is separation between your thoughts and who you are as a human. Observation is an alternative. You can observe your thoughts and allow them to continue by. You are not required to formally adopt each and every thought you have. Journal Prompt: I would rather not adopt thoughts...
Anger, 4
unsettled. Anger can bring out unkind parts. The parts of you that are unsettled and unwell. Like your unmerited irritability with a receptionist. Or the flares of judgment with strangers. These moments are pointing to something that needs your attention inside. Journal Prompt: I experience my unsettled and unwell parts when…
Mental Health & Journaling 