Metacognition And Rethinking Our Thoughts

Written By Colēgia

A thought can come and go at a moment’s notice. Some might linger longer than others and depending on what it is we might need to address it. One method that can help us make more sense of our thoughts is metacognition. This is usually defined as thinking about thinking and the benefit to this is that it can help us see things from a new perspective. Let's take a look at how we can apply this.

Recurring Thoughts

Certain thoughts might come up more than once and that's okay. Sometimes we might think about buying something and a commercial can serve as a reminder to buy it. Other times it can be a result of us keeping something in the back of our mind. One way to handle this is writing down things we see ourselves coming back to often and seeing if there's any merit to them or if it's just a stray thought. In many cases, they aren't as important as they might seem and are simply there for the sake of keeping our minds active. Other times they're worth having around for reference such as a creative idea for a story that we might want to write. A mantra for example is a phrase or thought that serves as a reminder for how to handle things which is a great example of using recurring thoughts practically.

“Certain thoughts might come up more than once and that's okay.”

Our Thoughts And Meaning

One good thing to be aware of is that not every thought has the same amount of weight or meaning associated with it. This is good because not every thought should have an action associated with it and learning which ones are valuable is necessary to keep in mind. Thoughts that help us better ourselves by focusing on self-care or are aligned with empathy have more value comparatively. Ideally, we want to be more aware of thoughts that lead us towards positivity since those can make a tangible difference in our lives. Not every thought needs to have meaning associated with it and that is completely okay. Sometimes it's okay to just let thoughts come and go without needing them to have value or action.

“One good thing to be aware of is that not every thought has the same amount of weight or meaning associated with it.”

Re-framing Our Thoughts

A helpful perspective that's worth considering is the idea that we are not our thoughts. While this can sound confusing it's worth thinking about. The benefit of this perspective is that it can help us view thoughts as an object that our mind tries to conceptualize and adds meaning to. The thing is that because not every thought has meaning or value, it can wind up being exhausting at times when we view our thoughts as an extension of who we are. That's not to say we should dismiss responsibility entirely but not having our sense of identity or worth tied to what we think can be freeing. If we want to let our thoughts empower us we have to be okay with stepping away from them and recognizing that we're more than what we think.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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