[Devotional] IN HIS PRESENCE: When your mind lies to you [2]

By Oke Chinye

Read: Mathew 15:11-20

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Meditation verse:

“Guard your minds with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Global Labeling: In global labeling, you generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment about yourself. Instead of describing an error in context of a specific situation, you attach an unhealthy universal label. For example, when you say “I’m a loser” in a situation where you failed once at a specific task.

Filtering: A person engaging in filtering takes the negative details and magnifies them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. For instance, you pick out a single, unpleasant detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of reality becomes darkened or distorted. When a cognitive filter is applied to your life, you see only the negatives and ignore anything positive. For you, the glass is always half empty.

Selective abstraction: Drawing conclusion based on one of many elements. Many things are responsible, but you are looking from a very narrow lens.

Emotional Reasoning: Emotional reasoning is when your emotions overtake your thinking entirely, blotting out all rationality and logic. Whatever you feel is believed to be true automatically and unconditionally. If you feel stupid and boring, then you must be so. Emotions are extremely strong and can overrule your rational thoughts and reasoning. You assume that these unhealthy emotions reflect the way things really are — “I feel it, therefore it must be true.”

Polarized Thinking (Black and White Thinking) In polarized thinking, you see things only in extremes— all or nothing. You must be perfect, or you are a complete and abject failure; there is no middle ground.

Jumping to Conclusions: Without the individual saying so, you know what he or she is feeling and thinking — and why they act the way they do. This is a major cause of offence and conflicts between people. Because what you feel or think they are saying, or thinking may be totally incorrect and very far from the truth.

Cognitive distortions are very unhealthy and can lead to mental health conditions like depression or anxiety. It can affect your sense of self-worth, relationships, health, and general wellbeing. Learn to question irrational thoughts. Ask yourself: Is this true? Where’s the evidence? Am I a failure just because I failed once? Who says nobody likes me? There are over seven billion people on earth, what fraction of this population do I know, or have I met? How then can I conclude that nobody likes me?

By learning how to identify and refute inaccurate thinking this way, you can find more rational and balanced way of thinking. For instance, you can say I failed in this, but that does not make me a failure, I just need to find a better way of doing this. However, if you are overly consumed by this pattern of thinking, then you need to speak to a professional counsellor or therapist.

You should constantly feed your mind with the right things. Renew your mind with the word of God. Meditate on and memorize scriptures that remind you of who you are and what you can do. Lastly, Guard your minds with all diligence, for out of it flows the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). It’s always a case of garbage in, garbage out.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Dcns Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

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