Day 10: Unhelpful Thinking Styles and How to Nurture a Growth Mindset

7 Cups has an exciting therapy update to share this month. To celebrate, we’re doing 25 days of Gratitude, Self-Care and Personal Growth. Read more here.

Unhelpful thinking styles, also regarded as cognitive distortions or negative cognitive biases, often cloud our judgment, decision-making capabilities, and overall mindset. These may include mind-reading, black-and-white thinking, overgeneralization, magnification, and personalization. These unhealthy thought-patterns act as significant barriers to personal growth, preventing us from reaching our full potentials.

Understanding and combating these unhelpful thinking styles is crucial to fostering a growth mindset – the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through hard work, smart strategies, and input from others. A growth mindset can help us experience healthier relationships, personal development, and achievement of our goals.

Here are some practical tips to shift from unhelpful thinking styles to a growth mindset:

1. Identify Negative Thought Patterns: The first step is to recognize your unhelpful thinking style. This could be predicting the worst (catastrophizing), viewing any mistake as a failure (personalizing), or thinking in absolutes (black-and-white thinking). By recognizing these patterns, you can start to challenge and change them. Awareness is key and we are here to help you with this. You can learn more about cognitive distortions by following our own discussion series organized by @Hope here

2. Mindfulness and Meditation: Mindfulness is a great tool for exploring and understanding your thought processes. It helps to separate yourself from your thoughts, allowing you to assess them objectively. Additionally, meditation can help in calming the mind and creating space for healthier thought patterns.

3. Embrace Challenges: Understand that challenges are an integral part of growth. Instead of viewing them as threats or failures, perceive them as opportunities to learn and develop.

4. Practice Self-compassion: Be gentle with yourself when you make mistakes or face difficulties. Recognize that everyone has their ups and downs, and that's entirely okay.

5. Seek Feedback: Constructive criticism is an invaluable tool for growth. Instead of viewing feedback as personal attacks, perceive it as an opportunity for improvement. 

Activity for Nurturing a Growth Mindset

One effective activity to nurture a growth mindset is to keep a journal of your thoughts or to track them:

1) For every negative thought you find yourself thinking, write it down and categorize the type of unhelpful thinking (distortion) it belongs to.

2) Challenge your thought with a replacement growth-oriented thought.

Example: If you find yourself thinking "I can't do anything right," categorize it as an Overgeneralization. Now, replace it with "I struggled with this task, but with some practice and learning, I can get better."

By doing this, not only will you become more aware of your negative thought patterns, but you will also gradually replace them with a growth mindset. This process of cognitive restructuring is a potent tool used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and can lead to significant improvements in mental health.

Please feel welcome to share your reflections on how unhelpful thinking styles or thinking distortions i.e. "traps" may be common for us. Try the activity above and feel welcome to share how you restructure your negative thoughts.