The Socratic Method... Your Thoughts on Trial.

Thoughts are a peculiar phenomenon. Thoughts are almost always there, either as a monologue, a dialogue or a running commentary in your head. They come and go fast, in fact, their velocity and the seemingly endless supply of new thoughts leaves us very little time to focus and question them.
If we accept the basic tenet of cognitive therapy – that how what we think determines how we feel and how we act – the breathless pace of thoughts rushing through our brain has a major implication:
Because not all thoughts are rational and reality-based, having little to no time to examine and if necessary, challenge our thoughts, will leave us vulnerable to get hurt by some of them.
Therefore, challenging thoughts is a crucial skill to develop and habit to form.

How can we challenge our thoughts?

What I proposed at the beginning – putting your own thoughts on trial - is based on the idea of having a Socratic dialogue with yourself: Just like in ancient Greece Socrates gently challenged his students’ assumptions and premises, we can examine our own thoughts in a straightforward and systematic manner.

And how does this work in practice?

First thing to do is to write down the thought to be questioned. 

Ready? Now write down your answers to the following questions:

1. What is the evidence for this thought? Against it?
2. Do I base this thought on facts or feelings?
3. Is this thought black and white when reality is more complicated?
4. Could I be misinterpreting the evidence? Am I making any assumptions?
5. Might other people have different interpretations of this same situation? What are they?
6. Am I looking at all the evidence, or just what supports my thought?
7. Could my thought be an exaggeration of what’s true?
8. Am I having this thought out of habit, or do the facts support it?
9. Did someone pass this thought or belief to me? Is so, are they a reliable source?
10. Is my thought a likely scenario, or is it the worst-case scenario?

A few suggestions to make this work out well for you:

• Begin with a thought that has been on your mind repeatedly, every thought with a lot of negative emotion attached is fair game.
• Take a few moments to think about each of the following questions, then write down the answers and elaborate on the “why” or “why not” in your responses.
• The important detail to make this work is focus and deceleration. You have to write it down to bring a thought into full awareness and allow yourself to examine it there.
• This will take about 15 minutes of time.
• Did I mention that it is crucial to do it in written form and not just in your mind?

What's interesting is that once you've made it a habit, it doesn't take that long to do. Thinking about it, we live in an information society, countless bits of information are flooding your brain through all sensory channels all day. While you might not always be able to control access to your mind - remember that many things aim for the amygdala - you can do damage control by not taking thoughts at face value. True for you own - a must for those instilled by others.