Destructive Thinking Patterns

and How to Change Them

SHEDEED ASHOUR MDProf. of Andrology, Sexology & STDsCairo University, Cairo – EGYPTConsultant Andrologist Dr Erfan & Bagedo General Hospital, Jeddah – Saudi Arabia

Objective

Today’s life style is so fast and stressful.

The byproducts of which is pollution, not only in air and food, but also, in mind and thinking.

Objective

It can be extremely difficult to focus on the good when, seemingly, bad things are happening in your life.

Objective

However you can train your mind to focus on the good things in your life rather than dwelling on the bad.

Objective

This is about changing the way you think, changing your thinking pattern.

Do you use any of these thinking patterns in your day to day life?

Do you use any of these thinking patterns in your day to day life?

‘Life is shit’ Thinking pattern

Everything in life is bad, everybody is not to be trusted and nothing good will ever happen to them e.g. “I won’t get that job, the interviewer didn’t like me, I didn’t particularly like them anyway.”

يرى الذى التشائمى التفكيرالفارغ الكوب نصف @ .دائما

‘Unsubstantiated conclusive’ Thinking

pattern You tend to make a lot of

conclusions without any evidence to back up your conclusions.

This can be a really destructive pattern as it can limit you in seeing reality for what it is e.g. “He walks a bit funny, he must be gay.”

الحكم و القرارات إتخاذ فى القفزدليل او بينة بدون الناس .على

‘Never to me’ Thinking pattern

when you think nothing good will ever happen to you. This can be a deep seated way of thinking and it is a deep down inability to believe you are worthy of anything good happening to you e.g. “I’ll never have money, I’ve never had it before so I’ll never have it in the future, might as well carry on with this shitty job, at least it pays the mortgage

نصف @ دائما يرى الذى التشائمى التفكير . لست لى يحدث لن ال الفارغ الكوبكاألخرين

‘The negative psychic’ Thinking pattern

Presuming you know what people are thinking about you and it’s all bad. e.g. “She thinks I’m an idiot, I’ll try to avoid talking to her.” كل فى النية سوء إفتراص

رايهم رؤية و المحيطيين @ سلبيا .فيك

‘Should, would, could’ Thinking pattern

This type of person knows what they have to do to change their life, they are capable and they know it and they would do it if only……… e.g. “I know I could go to university and I would, but I’m just to busy with other things right now, I’ll apply next year.” رغم التناسى و التكاسل

المقدرة.المعاذير ..................... خلق

‘Emotion based’ Thinking pattern

Your emotions control what you are thinking and therefore your vision of what reality is e.g. “I feel incapable of doing that so I must be incapable”.

من التقليل و الثقة عدمليس و حدس على الذات

حقيقة .على

‘It’s all my fault’ Thinking pattern

You see yourself as being the cause of everything bad that has happened e.g. “It’s my fault he left me for another woman.” You’ll notice this type of person does not take responsibility for the good things that happen.

الدائم التأنييب و الذات إتهام.لها

‘They’re all wrong’ Thinking pattern

You see everyone as incapable of doing anything right and your way is the best way to do it e.g. “He can’t do it right, I’ll stay late tonight and fix it when he’s gone.”

و لقدر الدائم اإلنقاصاألخرين .قدرات

Thinking pattern

These are just some of the common thinking patterns you have come across in your life and you have used some of them yourself.

We used to use mix the ‘Never to me’ and ‘The negative psychic’ thinking patterns about everything.

I made a conscious effort to change what I believed about myself and what I believed about the world and it has literally changed my life.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns The first stage of changing is to

recognize the problem

Just don’t think there is a problem so there is no need to change. If this is you then do nothing.

If you want to change you must think there is a need and you will start to recognize what things need to change and it usually starts with your perception of life.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns Everybody’s perception of life

is different, therefore everyone’s reality is different.

I don’t live in the same world as you and you don’t live in the same world as me.

That might sound a strange concept to some people, but think about it for a few minutes, it could change the way you see the world.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns The second stage is to be aware

of when you are using the destructive thinking patterns

We can employ different thinking patterns depending on what we are doing in life.

Recognizing when you use destructive thinking patterns can help you to change that pattern.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns The third stage is to replace the

bad with the good This is something that you don’t

do immediately. You don’t say to yourself ‘I’ll never be able to do that”, which is you old thinking pattern, to “Oh yes I can”.

That won’t work. You have to let the old pattern die slowly whilst slowly introducing your new improved thinking pattern.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns This stage takes place over time

and is not done immediately. The best time to change a

destructive thinking pattern is to let it run it’s course and slowly replace it with a thinking pattern that is better for you.

You can work on more than 1 destructive thinking pattern at a time.

How to change the destructive thinking

patterns The third stage is to replace the

bad with the good This is something that you don’t

do immediately. You don’t say to yourself ‘I’ll never be able to do that”, which is you old thinking pattern, to “Oh yes I can”.

That won’t work. You have to let the old pattern die slowly whilst slowly introducing your new improved thinking pattern.

Summary

Recognize Be aware Slowly change and introduce a new

thinking pattern Keep working on all your destructive

thinking patterns Change your life with your new way of

thinking

Thank You!

SHEDEEDASHOUR