Body Good, Mind Bad
Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.
-Alfred Adler
The mind has all sorts of tricks for convincing you otherwise, check all the cognitive distortions we have on hand to use, to convince us to be immobile. I want this to be a list you can return to to check yourself, so you can get on with it. Enjoy, if one really gets your goat, chances are the shoe fits. Don’t worry, most everyone does it. It is becoming aware of our thoughts, so you don’t get duped out of action.
Our thinking can:
- Jump to conclusions-Making judgments before you have all the necessary info…
- Mind-reading-Believing that people have an opinion of you before checking with them
- Fortune telling-Predicting the future in a negative way
- Catastrophizing-Expecting that the worst will happen and/or when something bad does happen, one thinks it’s the worst thing ever
- Discount and Filter-Giving negative events a lot of attention and negating positive experiences
- Should statements-”You should…blah, blah, blah,” These are strict rules to set for yourself and others. They are against the acceptance of yourself and others. Anger and resentment are associated with these statements.
- Personalization and self blame-“It’s all my fault” kind of thinking, seeing yourself as the the cause of the problem, when you actually had nothing or very little to do with it
- All or none thinking-Talk that carries absolutes! Always, never, perfectly, absolutely…there are two kinds:
- Generalization-Thinking that if something is true, then it is true for all other circumstances. Viewing an event as a never ending pattern.
- Labeling and Blaming-Name calling directed at another person. Basically you project all your problems on someone else, and avoid taking responsibility for your own problems.
- Emotional Reasoning-Basing all your decisions, judgments and conclusions on your own feelings. Feelings change and so the decisions you make are different from when you are not under the influence of an emotion that attributes to guilt, anger, and anxiety.
- Black and white thinking-This is good, that is bad, and there is nothing in between
I’m totally getting into the psyche…it’s a fun list, and there are more distortions, if you can believe it.
Trust your body, trust movement, if your hungry eat, your body will tell you. I’m not saying that our brain is “bad”, that would be black and white. These are tools to dig out the nasties that hold us back from action and self actualization, becoming our best! So…
If you can’t trust your head, return your awareness to your body.
