We are constantly thinking, taking in information, and responding to cues in our environment. Most of the time we’re not even aware of what we’re thinking when we’re thinking it. In a typical day, the average person will have 4,000 thoughts. That’s a lot of thoughts, which is no wonder we can’t remember all of them!
These thoughts often come quickly and automatically in response to something that’s happened either internally or externally in the world around us. Because they come so quickly from within us, we often assume they are true and don’t even take a moment to question whether they are a valid reflection of what’s going on in the moment before we act on them. This would be OK if there was always only one way of interpreting a situation. Unfortunately, many situations can be interpreted differently depending on the person observing it.