and hello to you and welcome to the Richard Nichols podcast, the Personal Development

podcast series that's here to help inspire, educate and motivate you to be the best you can be.

I'm psychotherapist Richard Nichols and this episode is all about cognitive distortions.

And if you're ready, we'll start the show.

All right there, folks, happy New Year. How's it hanging? New Year's often feel like a line in the sand, as if now that we call it something else,

things are going to be different now. Well, if you had a crappy 2024, fingers crossed,

for a better 2025. Strange expression, that wonder where it comes from. Something to do with

representing the cross of Christ to ward off evil spirits. People sometimes

suggest, but aren't there better ways? We're making a cross shape with your fingers? So,

ah, who knows? Different cultures have different superstitions, don't they? Don't tell somebody in

Sweden or Germany you got your fingers crossed about something, because that means something

else there.

That means that you're dishonest, that you're a liar.

Instead, they say, depress your thumbs.

Keep meaning to do an episode about superstitions at some point, because the mindset that

they create can definitely either create a positive mindset or a negative one depending on

your beliefs. And there are a lot of tricks that our mind plays on us that traps us into a negative

mindset. We tend to refer to them as cognitive distortions. Like I always say, overcoming problems starts with understanding and accepting them.

So, listen up, people. Let's see how many of these traps you fall into.

Things like confirmation bias, because that's a biggie.

And I know I've spoken about it quite a bit before I'll probably never stop

because it's so common a trap to fall into. Confirmation bias, if you've forgotten already,

...