There are mental traps that can hurt us. Most of the time we believe that our actions and behaviors are determined by our logic and rational mind. We often fall prey to stereotypes and labels, and each person's brain tries to conserve resources, which eventually leads to some cognitive distortions that make our lives less enjoyable.
Beware of these mental traps.
1. Mind reading
This cognitive distortion can probably be seen in most families. We often believe we know what others think of us. And often we are sure that they are thinking about something bad. And the worst part is that if we don't stop these thoughts in time, we can start acting in a certain way to make people love us, which will eventually lead to the opposite result. When we give in to these ideas, we are more likely to draw the wrong conclusions about people and their motivations. In these situations we are more anxious, which leads to exhaustion.
2. Self-criticism
Self-criticism isn't always good for you, it's an underrated mental trap. It only leads to guilt and other psychological problems. Self-criticism is nothing but a sign of low self-esteem. Negative internal dialogue is also the protagonist of another cognitive distortion, negative filtering, which makes us ignore all the positive information about a situation and makes us focus on the bad things.
3. Effect of false consent
The false consent effect is when we think that most people share our opinion. We often say things like "Everyone does" or "Most people live this way", even if there is no statistical data to back it up.
originally published on bota.al
