Dave Kashen shares how our minds automatically invent negative stories about social situations. He uses an anecdote about his sister leaving an event to show how we jump to harsh interpretations instead of accepting simpler explanations, and explores how mindful awareness can interrupt these self-generated narratives.
Here's a story about making up stories. I was with my sister this past weekend and she's telling me she went to this event with a number of her female friends and they had an amazing time. At the end of it, they were very conscious of her having a family and wanting to get a good night's sleep. And they said, hey, we know you need to go. Why don't you take off? And she left and immediately her mind started going to storytelling. Oh my God, why did they want me to leave? Do they not like me? Would they rather I wasn't there? And it's just crazy how our minds automatically go to the most negative stories about ourselves. And the thing that they said, in fact, quite the opposite was likely what was true, right? They care about her deeply. They love her, which is why they wanted her to leave and get a good night's sleep. But just notice how quickly our minds go and make up the most negative story instead of living in reality. We're living in this distorted reality based on the stories that our minds tell us.
