Thinking about thinking

Many of our thoughts happen outside of our awareness. Thinking is a bit like the beating of our heart - most of the time, we're not even aware of it, but if we 'tune in' we can notice our heart beating.

Thoughts are like this - most of the time, we don't even notice them.

Psychologists talk about ‘metacognition.’ This simply means ‘thinking about thinking.’ We know that different people are able to ‘think about their thinking’ to a greater or lesser extent. Thinking about our thoughts is a very important skill to develop. Some call it self-awareness.

Thoughts are thoughts, not facts

Although some of our thoughts might be unhelpful, we rarely doubt them. That's why in this section we encourage you to treat your thoughts as interesting bits of information, rather than as 'facts.'