Fixing bad habits of thought
Sep. 30th, 2017 02:20 pmI often think things which I know are not helpful, but seem to happen anyway. Often they involve someone else doing something potentially wrong, but preventing myself feeling frustration towards them and turning the anger on myself for not having expected and been able to deal with it.
E.g. whenever I see someone ignoring the speed limit or otherwise driving in a way I wouldn't, I assume they have a good reason, but I also know that's *usually* not true, and am angry at myself for not knowing what to actually think.
E.g. whenever I hear about someone being mistreated, I always feel like we're supposed to just accept that people who have power are better (even though ethically I think we need to root out that thinking).
E.g. Sometimes I do get angry, but I often think "why does this person deliberately unhelpful" rather than "why did this happen to be unhelpful". Also with inanimate objects.
For ages, I've had that *sort* of problem, but I've only slowly stitched together a generalisation, and couldn't seem to *stop* myself doing it.
But it turned out, just thinking "what would the natural thought for me be in this situation?" but putting no pressure on myself to actually endorse it right then, seemed to help a lot. It felt like it suppled up the mental pathways for thinking those things, so next time, it was a lot easier to do so the first time.
E.g. whenever I see someone ignoring the speed limit or otherwise driving in a way I wouldn't, I assume they have a good reason, but I also know that's *usually* not true, and am angry at myself for not knowing what to actually think.
E.g. whenever I hear about someone being mistreated, I always feel like we're supposed to just accept that people who have power are better (even though ethically I think we need to root out that thinking).
E.g. Sometimes I do get angry, but I often think "why does this person deliberately unhelpful" rather than "why did this happen to be unhelpful". Also with inanimate objects.
For ages, I've had that *sort* of problem, but I've only slowly stitched together a generalisation, and couldn't seem to *stop* myself doing it.
But it turned out, just thinking "what would the natural thought for me be in this situation?" but putting no pressure on myself to actually endorse it right then, seemed to help a lot. It felt like it suppled up the mental pathways for thinking those things, so next time, it was a lot easier to do so the first time.