How to stop accepting automatic thinking as absolute truth

Our emotions don't ask "is it alright to feel like this now?" before being felt. Likewise our spontaneous thoughts sometimes leave us wondering "where did that come from?" right afterwards. Not all thought process give a polite knock on our mental doors before waltzing into our minds.

On a cognitive level a thought that subverts the conscious mind is sometimes called an 'automatic thought'. Such automatic thinking can be internal dialogue, a mental image, or even a conclusion we make about a person or an idea.

These thoughts last just a split second. Moments later we tend to use our conscious mind to judge and evaluate that automatic impression and conclude whether we're going to accept or reject it. Someone opening this blog for the first time might have an automatic thought that lasts a split second based on the design of the page and a word or two in the article title. The automatic thought that's compelling enough can influence behaviour. The old adage 'don't judge a book based on its cover' is another example.

The danger of failing to recognize automatic thinking

The big issue with automatic thoughts is that we don't have time to process them as being true or not. That's the reason that trivial insults can still be painful and arguments in relationships can persist. Most of the time we're not even aware that we have automatic thoughts because we cannot anticipate them.

Emotions tend to follow automatic thoughts even without permission from our conscious mind. One car cutting in front of another on the road can stir up a whole number of automatic thoughts, but the interesting thing is that the emotional response we have to automatic thinking is different for all of us. The thoughts that come up are instant reflexes the subconscious mind uses to protect us and to validate our beliefs about the world.

Someone who has the belief 'drivers that cut in front of others on the road are idiots' will experience automatic thoughts that reflect this belief. Their automatic thought each time someone cuts in front of their car might be 'the driver is an idiot' and this could then trigger a 'suitable' emotional response. This all happens within the mind before an external behaviour is even seen.

Core beliefs and automatic thinking

Our core beliefs are ideas that we hold true and certain about the world. Once we've experienced something again and then again it stands to reason that the next time we have the same experience it will resemble the previous ones. Someone who doesn't know how to swim well will have a different core belief about even something as simple as going to the beach in comparison to a person who is an excellent swimmer. Holding the belief of not being able to swim well can result in all sorts of automatic thoughts being triggered when water or swimming is mentioned in conversations.

Our 'automatic mind' is quite good at advocating the core beliefs that we hold true about the world and filtering out a lot of 'negative' experiences without us having to think and evaluate each one. However as I've mentioned in other articles that core beliefs are never a total representation of the truth, it follows that neither are automatic thoughts.

The one question that can bring awareness to automatic thinking is: "what belief do I hold that leads me to think like that?"

5 hints that help notice automatic thoughts

I've mentioned before that challenging our untrue beliefs about the world can be a long and rewarding process. Since I've had conversations where I've heard opinions like 'beliefs are just beliefs, no belief can control a person's behaviour'. I hope that in this article I've pointed out how beliefs can and do control our behaviour through automatic thinking.

Intense emotions that are triggered as a result of automatic thinking often ignore the following principles:

The situation looks like it threatens the belief but in fact it doesn't.
Principles and beliefs change with context.
People make mistakes sometimes.
There might not even be a need to defend the core belief.
Others behave based on their own core beliefs and automatic thoughts.

Consider these 5 factors when noticing an automatic thought. Becoming aware of where automatic thoughts come from helps bring meaning to the unexplained emotions and unexpected thoughts we experience within.

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