Years ago a therapist gave me a list of “Cognitive Distortions” and told me whenever I have a strong emotional reaction to something to look at the list and try and identify which negative thought pattern I was leaning towards and work through it from there, listing the actual facts of the situation, nothing more, nothing less. What I learned was that pretty much all of us have a tendency to get into thought ruts about situations and fall into these negative thought patterns. It’s our thoughts about the situation that are the real cause of our pain, not so much the situation itself.
