This past week while watching a mental health stream, I learned about the psychological concept of counterfactual thinking or in layman’s terms a mindset which causes a person to start thinking “what if”. In other words, by definition it means, a counterfactual thought occurs when a person modifies a factual prior event and then assesses the consequences of that change. When you delve more into counterfactual thinking, it becomes riveting because it’s something we’ve all experienced and sometimes experience daily. Counterfactual thinking I think is nuanced but at its core from my understanding, it consists of Action, Awareness, and Corrections. Furthermore, everything we do begins with choice, and once we understand that choice, the outcome from that choice will make us either satisfied or dissatisfied. With that said, there is always a way to rectify the disatification so it doesn’t occur again. Below are two examples of counterfactual thinking.
If i hadn’t eaten that large spicy meal, I wouldn’t be experiencing heartburn.
If I hadn’t taken a sip of that hot cup of coffee, I wouldn’t have burned my tongue.
Real Free - Flowing Words 