Mindfulness for Medicos

Introduction The eyes see only what the mind knows and more often than not, we may become victims of our own minds, our own perceptions because of several reasons like our limited knowledge, distressing experiences and memories, need to feel safe and in control or simply a refusal to accept the reality as it is. Hence we develop some mental mechanisms to deal with our reality. One such mechanism is called cognitive distortion , a term used by mental health professionals for a set of automatic thoughts that pop up between the external events and one’s reaction to them; a core process in a multitude of psychological disorders.   Imagine a situation where we see our friends conversing with each other but cannot hear what they are talking about (so we have limited information). The logical and rational response in such a situation will be to ask them what they were talking about. However, on the backdrop of any anxiety disorder, let’s say social anxiety, the automatic thought that m...