Thought Traps

I have read up on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and attended a introductory course on it and I really like some of the tools on offer.

One of the points that stuck on my mind was that of "Thought Traps".

I think we have been all guilty of some of these at times

For example I can think of many times I have been guilty of black and white thinking where as soon as one thing goes wrong then we believe that the project is a complete disaster. I have been trying to train myself to try think of everything as a partial success with some lessons to be learned.

Also over generalisation, for example I allowed my self to be tainted by having a cheeky and mean spirited boss when I was younger. I then believed all bosses had to be mean spirited and nasty to get ahead. Although no doubt some are (look no further than the entrepreneur and republican presidential candidate) most are not.

However, identifying the problem is the easy bit, it is hard to alter deeply ingrained thought patterns but at least awareness of Thought Traps is a good starting point.

Cheers