Our mind is a master at developing negative thoughts and interpretations

Another theme of this week is observing your thoughts and gaining distance from them. This reduces their negative influence on you. When we face challenges in our everyday life (whether related to studies or other areas of life), our mind is skilled at creating thoughts and interpretations of the situation, which we tend to accept without questioning. Those thoughts may contain negative images of ourselves, others or the world around us ("I'm not good enough", "Everyone else knows what to do", "Others wouldn't really want my company").

These thoughts often define our experiences and encounters with other people. Roughly speaking, human experiences can be divided into direct and so-called simulated experiences.

  • Direct experiences are perceptible with the senses: what we see, hear, touch, smell or taste.
  • Simulated experiences consist of thoughts, interpretations, opinions, evaluations, analysis and other mental contents with which we interpret the world.
  • We can be aware of both our direct and simulated experiences at the same time. In everyday life, however, these experiences often get mixed up and can sometimes lead to, for example, misunderstandings or interpretations that are detached from our direct experiences.

Watch the following video example of a conversation between students, where the group members' interpretations of the situation differ from each other:



Finding distance to your thoughts

That being said, if we take our thoughts too seriously, they may have negative effects on our feelings and actions. For example, it may be that if we think we will fail, we don't give ourselves the chance to try, or if we think we are just a burden to others, we stay home, even if we feel like joining.

When we learn to observe our thoughts and treat them with curiosity and acceptance - not as truths, but as products of our mind, we can find space and distance to them even in difficult situations.

 

Learn more about the theme by watching this video (approx. 5 min):

You can practice distancing yourself from your thoughts with the help of the following exercises (choose one or all of them if you wish):

1.     Leaves on a Stream (3-4min):

2.     Metaphor of a Stage (5-6min): 

 

3.     Sushi Train (2 min):   

4.     Chessboard (2-3min): 

 

 

It's not just me who influences my thoughts?

Look through the following articles and choose one of them that you will read in more detail. As you read, think about how the content of the article could be related to pausing or the theme of thoughts and feelings? How could community, interaction and psychological safety affect our thoughts and experiences, or our willingness to pause?


Viimeksi muutettu: maanantaina 26. helmikuuta 2024, 17.18