The negative thoughts that we have about ourselves are often formed due to cognitive errors, which make them unhelpful, distorted and irrational. The 5 most common errors are listed below.
Write down your most repeated negative sentences that you tell yourself.
Read the following and see whether they could apply to your thoughts
Filtering: focusing on the negative aspects of a situation that suites our thoughts and ignoring all of the positive aspects that are incongruent with our thoughts. E.g. you got a good grade but you are only focusing on the mistakes you made.
Personalizing: taking full excessive responsibility for the negatives that occur while ignoring the other factors that are also involved, thereby leading to self-blame. E.g. if only I was perfect, he would have loved me.
Catastrophizing: the tendency to perceive the most extreme negative side and blow it out of proportion. E.g. I made a silly joke and now no one will ever take me seriously again.
All or nothing: judgment about ourselves and others are seen as all good or all bad. There is no middle ground. e.g. I am incapable of doing anything well.
Overgeneralizaton: taking an isolated incident and making it a general, global rule that applies to present and future. E.g. failing an exam and saying I will never be successful.
Based on your insights, how could you formulate the sentence differently? Write it down.
