Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

Overgeneralization:
taking one unfortunate incident that 
occurred at work and jumping to conclusions about your 
entire life
•
Personalization:
interpreting every glance or comment made 
by someone as a negative refl ection on you
•
Mind reading:
negatively assuming that you know what other 
people are thinking
•
Shoulds and should nots:
making rigid and infl exible rules 
that provide little fl exibility to adapt to today ’ s complex social 
environment
•
Catastrophizing:
perceiving any event as a major catastrophe 
or a sign of one on the way ( “ Oh, no, a red light! I might as well 
not even go. ” )
•
Emotional reasoning:
basing opinions on how you feel
•
Pessimism:
seeing a negative outcome for most events
If any of the above cognitive distortions apply to you, you will need 
to restructure them so that you don ’ t paint yourself into a depressing 
corner. By using what CBT therapists call
cognitive restructuring
, 
you can train yourself to change the way you think. 
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By considering possibilities instead of limitations on a regular 
basis, you ’ ll rewire your brain. When you focus on possibilities, you 
recruit new connections between your neurons instead of using the 
well - worn connections that reinforce negative emotions. 
There are several methods of thinking that can help you to resist 
negative thinking and moods and rewire your brain. These include 
the following: 
•
Thinking in shades of gray:
This perspective counters black-
and-white thinking. By considering all possibilities between 
the two extremes, you allow yourself to adjust to a reality 
between extremes.
•