Learning to zoom in and out from thoughts or feelings in different context for better mental health

In counseling work, many of the folks I see have either an extreme “zoom in” problem or an extreme “zoom out” problem.

Zooming into thoughts/feelings give us passion, obsessiveness, and a conviction to act but can come at the cost of “black and white thinking” and psychological rigidity.

Zooming out of thoughts/feelings give us more curiosity, openness and psychological flexibility but can come at the cost of lack of conviction and inaction at times.

Learning to zoom in and out intuitively in different context is an important skill to acquire for these folks.

Alternatively, having trusted others to scaffold for their blindspots can be a workable strategy.