Magical thinking and black-and-white thinking

A post from a friend reminded me about some of the ways in which I'm trying to change my thinking and how I still have quite a bit farther to go on that.

A moment of anger and frustration very quickly gets translated into my mind into global self-condemnation. "I made a mistake" turns into "I never do anything right." Someone else's momentary annoyance at me, which the other person probably forgot within thirty seconds, turns into "so-and-so hates me and is totally right to hate me because I'm a bad person." I am well aware that I'm not the only person who takes something trivial and pounces on it and turns it into a referendum on my value in the world, but I can't stop anyone else from doing it; I can only change myself.

This morning, I remind myself to claim the right to be imperfect, to be human, and to be OK with that.