Have you ever had a scary thought and then found yourself down the rabbit hole believing it must be true? Evidence may suggest otherwise, but the wave of worry makes the fear seem true and unavoidable. This is emotional reasoning.
Think of this as the process of believing something is factually true based on an emotional reaction fueled by concern. It’s an easy road to go down, but it can be avoided!
Identifying the pattern
The first step to solving a problem is to be able to identify it in the context of your life. The better you get at catching yourself amid emotional reasoning, the quicker you can stop yourself from a spiral of fear and worry.
Emotional reasoning can be similar to something called catastrophizing, which is essentially worst-case-scenario thinking. Emotional reasoning can be an unfortunate harbinger of that, so it pays to catch on early.
Because emotional reasoning triggers worry and concern, start exploring the thought chains in your brain when you feel these emotions. Though it’s not a long-term solution, realizing while worrying that the worry is not factually grounded provides a bit of space for you.
Here is an excellent article on the topic: The Lie of Emotional Reasoning.
Overcoming emotional reasoning
Being able to identify when you are emotionally reasoning allows you to take the needed actions.
Taking action to overcome can be divided into two categories: immediate and overarching.
Immediate action
Think of immediate action as triage in the moment to help yourself feel better. Rather than accepting something as true as soon as it pops into your head, question it.
If, for example, you are looking for a job but haven’t been able to find something just yet, you may be upset and irritated. If those emotions boil over in a moment of intense frustration, you may find yourself in a pretty unpleasant state. Getting a job is impossible, things are hopeless for you, and you might as well not apply to any more jobs ever because they’ll all reject you.
If you catch yourself in this sort of spiral, you can stop it. Realize that the concerns that extend from the worry are not true. Look for factually based evidence. People get jobs, you’ve had jobs before, and people can survive and live happily even if their job search takes longer than expected.
In a moment of emotional turmoil, choose to look at the facts and reign in your feelings. Strong emotional reactions to thoughts make them feel more real, but that doesn’t mean they actually are.
Overarching action
On the other hand, you can apply positive change more broadly by changing your philosophy for what enters your mind as fact. It’s just taking what I described above and making it into a system you can adopt mentally.
For a thought to capture your attention, require that it be grounded in fact and supported by objective evidence. For more on this, check out the post I wrote on catching and correcting false beliefs.
Install this philosophy, remind yourself of it, and utilize it. You’ll stifle a lot of worries before they can worry you, and you’ll avoid the cycle of a worrisome thought making you distort factual reality.
Emotional reasoning can be difficult to deal with, but the strategies outlined above can go a long way toward helping you protect your peace!
Thank you so much for reading! Please share with others who may benefit! 🙂
