Types of Unhelpful Thoughts
Being able to notice unhelpful thoughts is the first step you can take to adjust them to more helpful ones. Have a look at the following examples – do you recognise any of these thoughts?
Mind reading is when you assume you know what other people are thinking.
“When people look at me, they’re going to assume that I’m…”
For instance, if somebody pops in to visit and you haven’t had time to tidy up the house, you might think:
That might be an assumption that you’d make.
Sometimes people might think these things, but not always.
Most of the time, people are too concerned about the impression they are making on you to have time to pass judgements. Some people might be critical, but you might want to think about whether these people’s opinions need to matter that much to you.
You assume that you know what people are thinking, and then believe that thought to be a fact, rather than actually that this is just something that they might be thinking – after all, they might be thinking something completely different.