Cognitive Shifting #1
Learning to make cognitive shifts can help you change your mind for good.
Usually our subconscious minds run rampant with many of the same thoughts over and over. We are aware of them, but our hands are not always on the wheel.
If you can identify a worrisome thought that seems to roll round and round in your head without gaining any real traction, examine it. Articulate it. You might imagine yourself pulling this thought from the back of your brain up into the frontal lobe, just behind your forehead. You are not having the thought any more, but rather observing it.
You might even do a cost-benefit analysis of this thought. Is it helpful? Is it even correct? If you find that this thought is one-sided or distorted, keep asking questions about it. Where did it come from? How else could I think about this? Does this actually require some action? Is there a better way?
Over time and practice, you will find that you can make cognitive shifts beginning with an examination of the troublesome thought. While some realities persist, the way we think about them can improve. In so doing, you will literally be changing your mind for the good.
Worth Repeating
A wise man changes his mind; a fool never will.
-Spanish Proverb
