• PSYCHO-PATHS: Dispel Mental Mirages

• WAYPOINTS: Anointed for Integrity

• VIEWFINDER: Creatures of the Heat

Have you seen the heat on a highway create the mirage of water? It’s common on the hot afternoons of summer. Our mind can do the same thing. These false ideas are called “cognitive distortions,” biased perspectives we form about ourselves or the world around us. They are irrational thoughts and beliefs that we unknowingly reinforce over time. All cognitive distortions are: tendencies or patterns of thinking or believing, that are false or inaccurate, and have the potential to cause psychological damage.

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking / Polarized Thinking

Also known as “Black-and-White Thinking,” this distortion manifests as an inability or unwillingness to see shades of gray. In other words, you see things in terms of extremes – something is either fantastic or awful, you believe you are either perfect or a total failure.

2. Overgeneralization

This sneaky distortion takes one instance or example and generalizes it to an overall pattern. For example, a student may receive a C on one test and conclude that she is stupid and a failure. Overgeneralizing can lead to overly negative thoughts about yourself and your environment based on only one or two experiences.

3. Mental Filter

Similar to overgeneralization, the mental filter distortion focuses on a single negative piece of information and excludes all the positive ones. An example of this distortion is one partner in a romantic relationship dwelling on a single negative comment made by the other partner and viewing the relationship as hopelessly lost, while ignoring the years of positive comments and experiences. This filter can foster a decidedly pessimistic view of everything around you by focusing only on the negative.

4. Disqualifying the Positive

On the flip side, the “Disqualifying the Positive” distortion acknowledges positive experiences but rejects them instead of embracing them. For example, a person who receives a positive review at work might reject the idea that they are a competent employee and attribute the positive review to political correctness, or to their boss simply not wanting to talk about their employee’s performance problems. This is an especially malignant distortion since it can facilitate the continuation of negative thought patterns even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary.

5. Jumping to Conclusions – Mind Reading

This “Jumping to Conclusions” distortion manifests as the inaccurate belief that we know what another person is thinking. Of course, it is possible to have an idea of what other people are thinking, but this distortion refers to the negative interpretations that we jump to embrace. Seeing a stranger with an unpleasant expression and jumping to the conclusion that they are thinking something negative about you is an example of this distortion.

6. Jumping to Conclusions – Fortune Telling

A sister distortion to mind reading, fortune telling refers to the tendency to make conclusions and predictions based on little to no evidence and holding them as gospel truth. One example of fortune-telling is a young, single woman predicting that she will never find love or have a committed and happy relationship based only on the fact that she has not found it yet. There is simply no way for her to know how her life will turn out, but she sees this prediction as fact rather than one of several possible outcomes.

7. Magnification (Catastrophizing) or Minimization

Also known as the “Binocular Trick” for its stealthy skewing of your perspective, this distortion involves exaggerating or minimizing the meaning, importance, or likelihood of things. An athlete who is generally a good player but makes a mistake may magnify the importance of that mistake and believe that he is a terrible teammate, while an athlete who wins a coveted award in her sport may minimize the importance of the award and continue believing that she is only a mediocre player.

8. Emotional Reasoning

This may be one of the most surprising distortions to many readers, and it is also one of the most important to identify and address. Emotional reasoning refers to the acceptance of one’s emotions as fact. It can be described as “I feel it, therefore it must be true.” Just because we feel something doesn’t mean it is true; for example, we may become jealous and think our partner has feelings for someone else, but that doesn’t make it true. Of course, we know it isn’t reasonable to take our feelings as fact, but it is a common distortion nonetheless.

Awareness and self-reflection can help us see through these mental mirages. A clue is having a high level of emotion that’s different from what others perceive. The simple question, “Why am I reacting this way?” can dispel the distortion with more realistic, rational, and constructive ideas. You can move on with a better emotional adjustment!

Adapted from Courtney Ackerman on Positivepsychology.com

Many faith traditions practice anointing as an act of identity or marking a certain quality of life. I believe an Anointing of God shows in actions, not words. It needs no ecclesiastical endorsement. Kamala Harris exemplifies the anointing of Integrity in the actions of her life.

“Integrity” means the quality of being honest and having high moral principles. Vice-President Harris has demonstrated this virtue across decades of public service. For example, she made public 20 years of tax returns—the most of any national candidate—to make transparent the financial dealings for herself and her husband, Doug Emhoff. Kamala spent decades enforcing the laws of San Francisco and the state of California, obviously dealing honestly in the highest ethical standards. Her personal life shows integrity with a strong marriage, loving family connections, and business dealings that have been public and ethical. She has owned how her views have changed in the quest for the best policies for the nation.

In contrast, Donald Trump lacks basic integrity in business and moral principles. The Convention acceptance speech on July 18 had more than 20 lies which contradicted publicly known facts. He has been convicted of tax fraud and owes millions in penalties. He has declared bankruptcy multiple times. His divorces and affairs are well-documented. The Big Lie of a stolen election has been proven wrong by every court and election board in the nation yet is a central feature of his campaign. Modern “prophets” may spout words about a candidate’s divine mandate as the “Chosen One,” but the truth is found in behavior.

The value of integrity is deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic. From the Ten Commandments to Paul’s imperative to “put off falsehood,” it is clear that a person with integrity is aligned with God. Kamala Harris has lived out this quality for years. She is the anointed leader America needs now.

I enjoy hot tubs and the relaxing warmth. The recent trip to Yellowstone brought views of nature’s really hot tubs! The Celestine Pool, located in the Lower Basin area, is an example. The water averages 183 degrees! The pH is 8.3, like seawater. The heat is from the geothermal activity deep underneath the park known as the Lava Creek Caldera. The superheated magma is only two miles beneath the surface, which is very close in geological formations. Standing next to the Pool, the heat is obvious!

Even more outstanding is the microorganism life that thrives in the pool. Thermus aquaticus, the thermophile that revolutionized DNA replication processes, was discovered in this area in 1969. This revolutionized our understanding about the range of temperature that can host life. Even more important, this bacteria was used in 1993 by Dr. Kary Mullis to create Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) which dramatically advanced DNA research and earned Mullis a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. PCR creates millions of copies of a DNA section, permitting genetic research and discovery. All this from a boiling water pool in Yellowstone Park! You and I may not be skilled biochemists. Yet we can find a better life when we pay attention and seek knowledge in the world around us.

Thanks for subscribing to the TRACKS EXPRESS! Each issue I seek to inspire and inform for your well-being. Please do me a favor: forward your copy to a couple of friends and recommend they subscribe as well. I’m aiming to double followers by the end of the year. Your help is appreciated!

To Subscribe to TRACKS EXPRESS, click here.