Positive thinking - the path to happiness?

[kityoume]

Hello everyone, today I want to share with you things that have made my life a lot easier lately. I'm a pretty depressed person, which made my life a daily misery, but I think I've found a way out. Previously, it seemed to me that positive thinking was something very pop and invented in order to sell popular psychology, creating the illusion of solving the problem. However, there is something related to this that can help you actually cope. It is called cognitive distortions. Below I will provide a list of cognitive distortions for depression, your task is to analyze your thinking (or someone else's if suddenly it is easier for you to draw some conclusions from the outside) and find these distortions. Once you find them, you can be sure that your thinking at this point is not correct. You just should not trust your thinking if you feel that it is starting to lead you into these traps. Become an observer at this point, become critical and challenge your distortions and, damn it, think about the good.

Here is a list of cognitive distortions:
Catastrophizing: exaggerating the negative consequences of events. A person tends to think that even small problems will lead to catastrophic consequences.
Black and white thinking (dichotomy): the tendency to see the world only in extremes: either everything is good or everything is bad. No intermediate options and shades of gray.
Filtering out the negative: focusing exclusively on the negative aspects of a situation, ignoring the positive aspects. This creates the feeling that life consists only of failures and disappointments.
Generalization: one negative event is perceived as proof that all subsequent events will be just as bad. For example, failure in one exam leads to the conclusion that a person is generally incapable of learning.
Over-personalization: the tendency to attribute responsibility to oneself for events that are objectively beyond one's control. For example, considering oneself to blame for the problems of people around you.
Self-blame: excessive self-critical attitude, conviction of one's own worthlessness and inferiority. Often accompanied by thoughts like "I'm worthless" or "Everything I do is a mistake."
Pessimism: Constantly expecting the worst outcome in all situations. Believing that the future will only get worse, regardless of current circumstances.
Should thinking: Imposing rigid rules and standards of behavior on oneself ("I should", "I have to") that are impossible to follow. Failure to meet these requirements leads to feelings of guilt and disappointment.
Overgeneralization: Extrapolating one negative experience to a lifetime. One unpleasant incident becomes proof that one's entire life is full of problems and suffering.
Predicting the future: Believing that negative events will definitely happen, despite the lack of evidence. These predictions are based on emotions, not facts.

 

[lunarious]

Who made this theory? Cognitive Distortions. I recognize Cognitive Functions.

What does cognitive mean in easy explained way?

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I had to understand those categories as I underwent Cognitive Processing Therapy in order to remove the things that blocked me from understanding the negative messages about myself that I internalized. Happily I was able to move past my stuck points and rewrite that interior dialogue to my benefit. I am far happier today than I was being triggered.

 

[tree]

Definition of COGNITIVE

The Importance of Cognition in Determining Who We Are

 

[Tom]

Yes, I think it very useful and a simple way to improve quality of life.

 

[Outdated]

I wouldn't say positive thinking is exactly the path to happiness, but negative thinking is absolutely a direct path to depression and misery. When I was growing up kids were taught mental discipline, from both parents and teachers. That teaching doesn't seem to exist today.

We were also taught to be independent where as today the opposite seems to be true. After school and before school care didn't exist back then. We got ourselves ready for school including making our own lunches, we walked or rode our bikes to school, and after school we came home to an empty house and looked after ourselves. I believe that is one of the societal changes that has led to the huge amount of depression and chronic loneliness in younger generations, they never learned how to be by themselves.

 

[Rocco]

I am a big supporter of gratitude and positivity. Both are things I practice daily and it has turned my life around over the last few years.
I’ve been very active with gratitude in the last few months and wow! It’s almost like a shield against depression, sadness, and other unpleasant feelings or thoughts. I still have moments that are tough here and there but it doesn’t last for more than a few minutes to an hour.

 

[TBRS1]

Another point worth considering is this:

Every time a person has a reaction they are creating neural pathways. The more the reaction is repeated, the stronger the neural pathway becomes.

Repeat the same reaction often enough and it becomes the go-to reaction.

This applies to both healthy and unhealthy reactions.

Thinking positively works and feels better than thinking negatively. This is a thing I prefer to encourage.

 

[Trophonius]

It's not the path to happiness, but it helps. A book about this is The Happiness Advantage.

 

[velociraptor]

I try to reframe issues in a more positive light. As in it could have been worse or look what I just learned. Failure is very important to learning so it's important to understand that getting something wrong is often a necessary step in eventually getting it right.