Thought Hunter

Our World is in great danger. Coal-Heads are trying to use humans as their energy source. These aliens’ primary fuel is Negative Feelings. So the more we feel negative, the more fuel and power they get.

In doing so, they use a special gun that sends negative thoughts to our brains and we begin to create negative feelings for them to use as fuel.

If Coal-heads win, there will be no one on earth that has a positive feeling. Happiness will be gone forever!

But our scientists have developed a special gun. We call it Coal-Tong. This gun deactivates the bad thoughts by finding the distortions in them. When these thought-bending distortions are found, bad thoughts disappear.

Find the distortion in the sentence, adjust your gun and fire. There are just 10 distortions:

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking.
Here you see everything in black or white. There are no in-betweens.
An example is: “Nobody loves me”

2. Overgeneralization / Labeling
Here, you take a single failure and you generalize it to a never-ending failure. You always label yourself or others. Some examples are:
"I can't maintain relationships."
"I am not a socially desirable person."

3. Focusing on the Negative
You find a single negative detail and you get stuck on it.
Example: "I am not good at my job"

4. Disqualifying the Positive
You can’t see the positive side of things. The good things are all by chance, not due to your skills etc. You underestimate yourself. For example:
"It is a matter of luck that I have risen to this point."

5. Magnification
You exaggerate the importance and effects of events. We also call this distortion catastrophising.
"I will go broke if I do not pay attention to my spending."

6. Emotional Reasoning
If you feel bad, you take it as an evidence of bad events that will happen. Sometimes you do it in the opposite way. If you feel so good about somebody, you think she has the same feelings for you. But that’s another story.
Here is an example:
"If I feel bad, something bad will happen."

7. “Should” Statements
You try to motivate yourself with “should.” Here is a tip: if you see a “should” in a sentence, pull the trigger.

8. Personalization
You put yourself at the top of the list of reasons of a bad event.
"He ignored me because I did something wrong."

9. Mind Reading
You think you can see what other people think. And you do this in a negative way.
Example:
"She will not want me if I show my feelings."

10. Fortune Telling
You think that you can also see the future, and as you can expect, in a bad way.
"I will be obliged to marry someone that I don't want."

We have not much time, hunters. They are close. Take your Coal-Tongs and do your best for your world!