Mireille and Adam discuss the role of our thoughts, how they run our lives, and how they make us feel. We talk through alternative ways to think, the power we hold in starving our habitual neural networks, and the ways our thoughts help us to be our best selves. How aware are you of the quality of the soil of your mind?

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Featuring:

• Mireille Reece, PsyD – LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Thoughts and the thinker – How do our thoughts affect how we do ourselves and live our lives?

The Role of Attention or Awareness: If we aren’t considerate or reflective of our thoughts, we ignore the environment in which we grow.

Maladaptive thoughts: Aaron Beck – 10 Cognitive Distortions

1. Catastrophic Thinking: Imagining the worst case scenario.
   Context and gratitude as alternative options.

Thoughts affect feelings and feelings affect thinking.

2. All or nothing thinking: Thinking in binary or absolutes modes. This type of thinking perpetuates more cognitive rigidity and lends to feeling hopeless.
   Reframing strategies – Use specifics in lieu of the generalities or extremes.
   Building skills in new lanes…moving from expert to novice when you move the skill or knowledge into a new area or relationship.

3. Don’t SHOULD on yourself! Creating an external construct and imposing and applying it to oneself. These are within the context of your own internal self-talk and personal expectations.

4. Mental Filters: Focusing on one aspect or detail of a situation and obsessing over it.
   Reframe – What else can you focus on…put on a different lens to see your world.

It isn’t just about NOT doing these things, it’s about being intentional and reflective around the thoughts we think and putting forth effort in the direction that you want to go.

Use the “Best Friend” test. Would you say to your best friend what you say to yourself?

Resources: Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!