Cognitive Distortions - part 1 of "The Power of Perception"

What if the limits we encounter in life are most often self-imposed?  What if the phrase “I can’t” is nothing more than a jail cell built from two words? 

Transcript

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Imagine two people stuck in the same traffic jam. One grips the steering wheel, muttering about how the world is conspiring against them, their shoulders tense under the weight of oppression. The other one leans back, sighs, and presses play on a podcast they've been saving for a moment, just like this. Same road, same river of red brake lights. Yet one person feels trapped, while the other feels oddly liberated. What separates them it's the map in their minds, their cognitive maps. That map doesn't just reflect our world, it also creates it. Not just for ourselves, but for those in the passenger seat. Our internal map is the lens through which we interpret every constraint and every opportunity. It's why a child can feel boundless joy in a fenced backyard, while an adult might feel claustrophobic in a penthouse with a view. These cognitive distortions are like defects in a lens, warping perception to the point where a minor setback transforms itself into the irrational and visceral expectation of impending disaster. Someone prone to catastrophizing might see a delayed flight as a literal onset of a ruinous domino effect. Oh well, I'll miss the meeting, lose the client, lose my job, and end up homeless. Well, someone with a gross mindset might use those extra hours to sketch out a new project idea on a napkin. But these cognitive distortions go deeper than individual thinking. They're often reinforced by our environment. They're woven into the cultural narratives we inherit, our family experiences growing up, school, the workplace, our social connections, and all forms of media we consume, including podcasts, I might add. But what is it like to be inside of the mind of that stressed out traffic jam survivor? If I could sum it up in one phrase, it would be, well, tomorrow's another day. That same dysfunction can repeat itself time and time again until that life is used up, wasted on raging against perceptual entities that live more within the mind of the observer than in the real world around them. And remember, our internal cognitive map doesn't just reflect our world, it helps to create it. But there's a key, there's a key that unlocks this cage built of cognitive distortions, and it's this. Our map isn't static, it isn't fixed, it's drawn and redrawn every day by the stories we tell ourselves, the language we use, and the narratives we absorb, often without even consciously realizing it. Most of us know or have known someone prone to catastrophizing? But what if this dynamic is expressing something present to some degree within all of us? What if limits we personally encounter in our life are often self imposed? What if the phrase I can't is nothing more than a jail cell built from two words? Swap it for I choose not to and those bars begin to dissolve. The mirage begins to dissipate. This is how language shapes our cognitive maps. Some indigenous languages, like Tuvan in Siberia, lack a direct word for impossible. Their speakers describe obstacles as not yet done or requiring more effort. Imagine growing up with that mindset where setbacks are temporary, not terminal. Even in English, changing the phrase I have to work to I choose to work shifts the experience from obligation to autonomy. If you do this, your map expands with calmness and clarity instead of contracting under stress and confusion. You've been listening to part one of the Power of Perception, a series from This Light Shines Podcast. In the next segment, we're going to take a look at freedom from a child's perspective and uncover a beautiful lesson to be learned there.