Don’t Believe Everything You Think | Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions
Your Thoughts Come From Your Body: Why Cognitive Distortions Can’t Be Healed by Thinking Alone
We’ve all experienced those moments when our minds start spinning.
The thoughts come fast and repetitively. They feel heavy and consuming. Maybe they tell you that you’ve done something wrong, that something bad is about to happen, or that you’re not good enough in some way.
And even though part of you knows the thought doesn’t make sense, it still pulls you in.
You spiral, analyze, and overthink. You try to find certainty, but it only leaves you feeling more confused and tied in knots.
It’s painful. Truly painful.
And most of the advice out there about how to deal with these kinds of cognitive distortions just doesn’t get to the real roots of the issue.
What Most Advice About Cognitive Distortions Gets Wrong
Most approaches to cognitive distortions focus only on the thoughts themselves.
We’re told to challenge the distortion, look for evidence against it, write a list of counterexamples, or replace it with something more positive.
That kind of cognitive work can help with mild thought patterns - it can bring awareness and perspective.
But when the same painful thoughts keep coming back, despite your best efforts to think differently, it’s not because you’re doing something wrong … It’s because your thoughts are just the surface layer.
Cognitive distortions aren’t random or purely mental mistakes. They’re symptoms of something deeper, old emotional patterns and body states that are still living inside of you.
Where Cognitive Distortions Really Come From
Most of our thoughts (especially the ones that feel compulsive, illogical, or hard to control) actually start in the body.
When the body carries old emotions and experiences that never had a safe place to be felt, they continue to live on in our bodies and psyches. These feelings of unease continue to exist within, and when they get triggered, our mind tries to make sense of these feelings by creating thoughts and stories that match the feeling.
So what we call cognitive distortions are often the mind’s way of giving language to sensations that live deeper inside us. And that’s why we can’t truly heal them just by working with them at the level of thought.
So when you notice yourself stuck in repetitive or distressing thoughts, what you’re really noticing is your body speaking. The mind is translating unsettling sensations and emotions into language.
Why Thought Work Alone Doesn’t Create Lasting Change
Trying to change cognitive distortions at the level of thought is like rearranging furniture in a house that’s still shaking from an earthquake.
If the body still feels unsafe, no amount of rational thinking can convince it otherwise. The nervous system doesn’t respond to logic - it responds to felt safety and deep listening.
This is why even when you write down your distortions, argue with them, or reframe them, they can creep back in again. Because what you’re trying to reason with isn’t just a thought, it’s a feeling that never got to complete its cycle.
The Somatic Way to Work With Cognitive Distortions
Instead of trying to talk yourself out of the thought, listen to the feelings beneath it.
When a painful thought arises, pause. Bring your awareness into your body and notice what’s there.
What do you feel underneath this thought?
Where do you feel it?
Maybe your shoulders tense, or your stomach tightens, or your heart feels heavy. Stay with the sensation. Breathe gently. Offer yourself warmth and curiosity.
Ask, “What might this part of me be trying to protect? What does it need me to feel?”
When we allow ourselves to feel the emotions that live beneath the thought, when we bring compassion, safety, and presence to them, the nervous system begins to reorganize. The body learns that it’s safe now. The emotion completes. And the thought naturally begins to change.
About This Somatic Meditation To Heal Cognitive Distortions
If you’d like to experience this for yourself, this somatic meditation will guide you through this process of feeling the feelings beneath your thoughts. Using Regenerating Images in Memory (RIM®), a gentle, body-centered emotional processing technique, you’ll be guided to access and care for the emotions that live underneath repetitive or painful thoughts.
Instead of trying to “fix” or argue with your mind, you’ll learn how to meet your feelings directly in the body. This allows the emotions that fuel cognitive distortions to be acknowledged and released, helping your mind find its natural calm and clarity again.
It’s a simple yet powerful practice that invites you to soften, listen inward, and discover that your thoughts begin to change most easily when your body feels safe.
Try the Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - Why Cognitive Distortions Can’t Be Healed by Thinking Alone
05:11 - Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions: Regulating Breathing
09:11 - Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions: Feel the Feelings Beneath The Thoughts
13:02 - Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions: Deepening Your Understanding With RIM
28:06 - Conclusion
Related: find more somatic emotional processing meditations here!
How was that Somatic Meditation to Heal Cognitive Distortions for you?
What shifted within you? What do you understand about your cognitive distortions now that you didn’t understand before?
Please let me know in the comments!
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About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a somatic emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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