Mental Filtering: The Thinking Errors Series Part 2

This is the second installment of a 10-part series on thinking errors. Today’s error is mental filtering.

What are thinking errors?

Thinking errors happens when your thoughts are not aligned with the reality of the situation.

You can read more on thinking errors here, in my previous post in the series.

Mental filtering

Mental filtering is a common struggle. It is especially common among people with mental health conditions.

Essentially, mental filtering is focusing exclusively on the negative. You may pick out one or more negative details and decide these are more important than everything else.

How to recognize mental filtering

Mental filtering can be tricky to recognize because it feels true. The negative detail you are focused on feels important to you. Here are some examples to help you think about it:

1. “I have a unibrow, so everyone is going to think I am ugly.”
2. “One of my students didn’t like my lecture, so I must be terrible at teaching.”
3. “I said the word ‘um’ twice during my speech which mean I am awful at public speaking.”
4. “I didn’t get tickets to the concert in time. My month is ruined!”

Ways to overcome mental filtering

These kinds of thoughts can be incredibly harmful.

Let’s learn how to challenge them.

Examine the evidence

When you realize you are viewing something as all bad, examine the evidence. Is it really 100% bad, or is there anything good mixed in there as well?

You may even find that there is more good than there is bad, but that you were focused on only the bad.

Is your entire day really bad because one bad thing happened? What about all the good things that also happened? It’s important to try to have a balanced view of your day.

That isn’t to say you can’t be upset about the bad things, but you should do your best to recognize that the bad things aren’t the only things.

Write it down

If you are struggling to think of positives, write down what happened during the time period you are viewing as bad blow-by-blow. Write down events that seem small even, and list them chronologically.

Go back through your list. Can you see anything good that happened? If not, try breaking it down into smaller chunks so you can focus more on the details.

If we take example 2 about one student not liking a teacher’s lecture, we may end up writing things down like other students asking good questions or a student telling us they enjoyed what they learned.

Ask a friend

Friends can be invaluable sounding boards, if you have the right ones. If you have friends who will be honest with you, consider asking them if it’s okay to talk about your day to figure out if you are picking out the negative too strongly.

Then, walk through your day, the same way you would if you were writing it down. The advantage to this one is that it is interactive. You may receive questions that make you think and you should gain a second opinion on whether you are mental filtering or not.

I hope you enjoyed the second installment of The Thinking Errors Series. As always, please leave a comment down below if you did. You can also contact me here.

Until next time,

Danna