Who’s Your Fact Checker?

We’ve heard a lot lately about the dangers of misinformation. Even Twitter is increasingly flagging posts, with the disclaimer: “the content of this message is disputed and might be misleading.”

This is one step in the right direction. What’s even more harmful to us, is our internal messaging: what we say when we talk to ourselves, with the roughly 50,000 daily thoughts our brains create. Who is fact checking these?

The worst in-box is the one in your head. Automatic, negative thoughts and long-standing, hard to recognize, but familiar lines of thinking, wreak havoc in challenging times like these, especially during the holidays. Without a fact checker, anxiety, depression, and an overall diminished quality of life are likely.

We’ve got to consciously use our minds to be fact checkers for our brains. Our brains are “nervous Nellies,” doing an outdated job, trying to keep us safe from perceived danger. Your brain, with its negativity bias, doesn’t care about the quality of your life: the more anxious and prepped for doom and gloom you are, the better chance it has to fulfill its mission.

Many of our thoughts are complete garbage, but they vie for our attention. They present themselves as well thought-out conclusions worthy of action. We need to work on creating a separation between our thoughts and our selves. We need to grasp that we are not our thoughts, and our thoughts are not us. Our thoughts are just the result of the normal, spontaneous wanderings of our brains. Here’s my definition of what a thought is: a brain secretion. I suppose we ought to be glad that we have them, since otherwise we’d be brain-dead, but your thoughts are not a reflection of who you are, nor of your character.

What I do now, is consider the source. I know that my brain is naturally negative and I “thank it” for trying to protect me, but I don’t let my brain be the master. I take it all with a grain of salt. I simply see it as mental activity, instead of reacting to it. If needed, with repetitive lines of thinking, I write things out and put the thought on trial and determine if there is any evidence to support that line of thinking.

I’m not the creator of the thoughts. My brain is. But I hold the title of director, executive producer, and editor. I’m just not going to entertain negative thinking. I’m not going to give it my energy. Statistically speaking, I should have around 25 years left to live. So why should I waste any energy on self-created stress?

© 2020 by Kevin Stacey.Excerpted from the book: MindRight Navigate the Noise. Click here for more info and to order book.