Photo: David Dibert

What is Cognitive Reframing? 🖼️

Learn what it is, and why it matters!

Here’s a new mental model for you - cognitive reframing. It’s a fantastic concept from the discipline of psychology that is useful to apply both in personal and professional situations! 🧠

What is cognitive reframing?

Cognitive reframing is a deceptively simple idea. It’s just looking at a given situation in a different way — or putting it in a new “frame” which could be more useful. (A frame in this sense is the complex set of your ideas, beliefs, value which are used to infer meaning on a situation.)

Why is this interesting?

Reframing can be extremely helpful in problem solving and decision making. If you have a situation that you think it might help to reframe:

1. Acknowledge and try to recognize some of the framing that exists in your perception — certain ideas, beliefs etc
2. Consider alternative angles — try to find different framing to use to look at the situation. Here’s a great list to use as triggers to help with reframing.

I’ll leave you with this marvelously memorable parable that reminds me of cognitive reframing:

A farmer in a poor village was considered very well-to-do, because he…