Magnification and Minimization: The Thinking Errors Series Part 7

I can’t believe we are already on part seven of The Thinking Errors Series! Today, I will be discussing magnification and minimization. If you’re new to the series, check out part one on all-or-nothing thinking here to learn more about thinking errors.

Magnification and minimization

With magnification, you are overly concerned with an insignificant event. You are viewing it as more important than it actually is.

In the case of minimization, just the opposite is true. You are placing too little value on something positive that actually matters.

People may magnify small mistakes. They may also minimize positive traits they have.

Minimization can make you feel insignificant because you are saying your good traits are unimportant. Magnification can lead to feeling out of control because you feel that the world is crashing down around you.

How to recognize magnification and minimization

Minimization often contains the keywords “only” or “just”. These thoughts may also contain phrases such as “no big deal”.

Magnification doesn’t really have keywords, but it can be recognized by the fact that the event causing the thought was not a big event.

Here are some examples:

1. That quiz was only worth 20% of my grade, so failing it isn’t a big deal.
2. Just because he hung out with me after work, that doesn’t suggest he might want to be friends.
3. I lost my necklace and now everything is terrible.
4. I didn’t finish my homework last night so now I am going to fail the class and never get into graduate school.

Ways to overcome magnification and minimization

If you want to develop healthier thoughts, it’s important to learn how to cope with and challenge unhealthy thoughts, such as magnification and minimization.

Ask yourself, “And then what would happen?”

This is a great strategy for magfication. When you catch yourself thinking this way, ask yourself what would happen next.

It may be a bit distressing in the beginning, because if something bad were to happen, things may not be okay immediately. But then what would happen next?

The important thing to get out of this exercise is that things turn out okay eventually.

Compliments

For minimization, it’s very important to learn to take a compliment.

If you want to read more about that, you can find more information in my post on disqualifying the positive under the section titled “Ways to overcome disqualifying the positive”. Find it here.

Make a list

Make a list of your positive traits. Try to think of at least ten nonphysical qualities.

Remember these when you feel like minimizing your positive qualities.

You can also use this when you catch yourself magnifying a situation by reminding yourself that you have positive qualities to help you get through the situation.

I hope you enjoyed the seventh installment of The Thinking Errors Series. As always, please comment down below or share a link to social media if you did. You can also contact me here.

Until next time,

Danna