Recognize And Disempower Cognitive Distortions In Everyday Work

How we think has a dramatic impact on how we feel – in fact, the definition of stress (when a perceived threat exceeds the perceived available resources) depends heavily on our perception of a situation. Cognitive distortions often distort our perception, exposing us to unnecessary stressful situations. That’s why in this blog post we would like to help you recognize cognitive distortions in your thinking patterns and learn to avoid them.

The current circumstances have a serious impact on our thoughts, feelings and behavior, both in our private and professional lives. We are currently learning to deal with the fact that familiar behavioral patterns no longer work so well or perhaps no longer work at all and need to be adapted. The pandemic is changing our everyday (work) life and this is noticeable on all levels. Every change, whether good or bad, represents a stress factor for people. How much a person suffers from it is ultimately determined by their own subjective perception.

Stress caused by cognitive distortions

The effects of stress manifest themselves in different ways and if we concentrate on everyday working life, we can quickly notice symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, fluctuations in performance or decreasing motivation.

When looking for mechanisms or techniques on how we could reduce the increased feeling of stress, it might be advisable to start with our own thought patterns. Because they could potentially be thought patterns that lead you to view reality in an inaccurate – usually negative – way.  In short, the distortion of your own perception strikes!

Cognitive biases are ways our thoughts can become biased. As conscious beings, we are always interpreting the world around us and trying to understand what is happening. Sometimes our brain takes “shortcuts” and generates results that are not entirely accurate. Different cognitive “shortcuts” lead to different biases or distortions in our thinking. Sometimes we jump to the worst conclusions, sometimes we blame ourselves for things that are not our fault. Cognitive distortions occur automatically – because we don’t want to think inaccurately – but if we don’t learn to notice them, they can have powerful but invisible effects on our moods and our lives.

Recognize cognitive distortions

In 1976, psychologist Aaron Beck first developed the theory of cognitive distortions, and in the 1980s David Burns was responsible for popularizing it with common names and examples of the distortions.

If we know what to look for, it’s fairly easy to spot cognitive biases in others. It may be a little more difficult to recognize your own, but it is possible. This usually leads to a lasting positive change in the way we experience stressors in our lives, for example. In challenging times like these, this is definitely something we could benefit from.

What’s interesting is that several cognitive biases can actually work to our advantage. The key is knowing when and how to do this.

Here are some common (and officially recognized) cognitive biases with examples of how they affect stress – you might smile when you recognize one or two as a familiar “friend.” If you look for your cognitive distortions in the coming days and try to carefully correct them, you will be well on your way to reducing your reactivity to the stress in your life.

“All-or-nothing thinking”

All-or-nothing thinkers often use words like “always” and “never” when describing things. “I’m always stuck in traffic!” “My bosses never listen to me!” This type of thinking can magnify the stressors in our lives and make them seem like bigger problems than they really are.

Overgeneralization

Those who tend to overgeneralize tend to take isolated events and assume that all future events will be the same. For example, an overgeneralizer who has had his application rejected three times may say, “I will never get accepted.”

Mental filtering

Mental filtering (also called selective generalizing) allows a negative detail or fact to spoil our joy, our happiness, our hope.

An example: You have a great evening at a restaurant with friends, but your meat is served too raw for your taste and that ruins your whole evening.

Disqualification of the positive

The positive is simply not acknowledged. Often you say to yourself that someone else could have done something just as good or better, or you believe that your own positive actions, qualities, or achievements don’t count… This refers to negating positive feedback or results you may receive at work, for example, “If my boss compliments my work, it doesn’t count because he or she is just being nice to me to encourage me to do better.”

Maximize and minimize

Similar to mental filtering and disqualifying the positive, this cognitive distortion involves placing greater emphasis on negative events and downplaying the positive ones. The customer service representative who only notices customer complaints and fails to notice positive interactions is a victim of magnification and minimization. Another form of this bias is known as catastrophizing, which involves imagining and then expecting the worst possible scenario, which can lead to a lot of stress.

personalization

Personalization involves seeing oneself as the cause of events, even though other people or circumstances could also be responsible. When we personalize, we take things to heart, even if they are sometimes purely business, for example, “I didn’t get the promotion because they didn’t like me.”

Fight against cognitive distortions

So, now that we’ve learned about some faulty thinking patterns, you’re probably already wondering how to change them:

Challenge these thoughts:Their thoughts aren’t necessarily the truth, so it’s helpful to challenge them: “How do I know they think I’m incompetent? How much percent can be attributed to luck and what percent can be attributed to my hard work?”

Look for evidence for and against the thoughts:Play detective and question your evidence: “Where is the evidence that they don’t like me? Is there evidence that they like me?” It can be helpful to ask others for advice when looking for evidence, as you can often find yourself stuck in one style of thinking. With practice, however, you should find that it becomes easier to see both sides of the story.

Defuse your thoughts:Label your thought patterns with the names above and confirm to yourself that these thoughts are happening: “There’s a disaster here!”. Recognizing your thoughts is helpful in reducing their impact on your mood and how you feel.

Accept the thoughts, but don’t get attached to them:Accept that your mind only cares about you and your survival. Just be grateful to your mind for its work and get on with what you need to do – like giving the presentation!

Be careful:Explore your thoughts. If you find that the thoughts are not helpful to your well-being, let them come and go like clouds in the sky, and remember that they are not permanent!

Take some time and try to tune in to the unhelpful thoughts and thinking styles that impact your brain when it comes to work – you’d be surprised how often these come up. Make a concerted effort to change the unfavorable thinking styles and reap the benefits of a better mindset at work.  This allows you to influence the way you experience stressors. The less stress you feel, the more focused and productive you remain!

And if you find it difficult to deal with this on your own, it often helps to talk to trusted people or colleagues. Simply realizing that you are not alone with your thought patterns can help you combat them successfully!

As William Shakespeare said: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”