Mistakes Are For Correcting

13 Feb

It’s common to beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. It might look a bit like this.

A depressed young man sat at a desk. A mirror shows an image of him of him standing with the word 'failure' above his head — Unhelpful Thinking Styles 101: Emotional Reasoning

There’s a reason why we do this, and it’s often linked to stress, unhelpful thinking styles, and something psychologists call emotional reasoning. That’s when we treat our feelings as facts, for example, “I feel stupid, so I must be stupid.”

When we’re stressed, our brain’s threat system goes into overdrive. Instead of seeing a mistake as feedback or learning, we interpret it as danger. The conclusion we reach isn’t truth, it’s a story, and often, a harsh one. You aren’t stupid for making a mistake, and neither am I. Mistakes are simply signs that we’re learning.

As Buddhism reminds us, we are always beginners. It’s helpful to cultivate a Beginner’s Mind, one that views each experience as new, without judgment or self-criticism. The more we discover, the more we realize how much there is still to learn.

At times, it may feel like we’re wandering down rabbit holes, uncertain of where we’re heading. But as the rabbits do, we resurface, see the world anew, and accept that it may not be what we once thought. That’s the beauty of learning, and the freedom that comes when we stop mistaking our thoughts for facts.