Have you ever spent the day stewing about an interaction you had with a friend, family member, significant other or boss? Do you think about what you should have said, imagine what you will say at your next interaction and then imagine that person’s response? Do you imagine what they might be thinking, what selfish and insensitive motivations are influencing them? Are you angry at the person with those motivations, and at what you imagine that person’s response will be when you next speak to her or him?
These are stories. We tell ourselves stories all day long. Some of them may end up being relatively accurate. Some are wildly inaccurate. Regardless, how much sense does it make to work oneself into a miserable state over hypothetical interactions and hypothetical motivations in others?
A mindfulness practice, in conjunction with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT,) will teach you to become aware of how often you are lost in thought, how often you are telling yourself stories.