One time I used Critical Thinking was when I decided that I just couldn’t deal with someone in my life anymore. I had this ex-friend who was toxic and whom I hated to be around despite some of my other friends either just tolerating him or outwardly showing that they didn’t want to be friends but not cutting him off. I used critical thinking by analyzing the situation and thinking about my feelings about it as well as my friend’s and my own actions. I decided after some deliberation that I was going to distance myself from the toxic person in my life completely and I was going to stop hanging out with my friends when they were spending time with him. In the end, he blamed everyone around him for “hating” him and screamed at one of my best friends. That made almost all of us cut him off and refuse to talk to him at all. Critical Thinking helped me in this instance because I was able to separate myself from the situation without feeling incredibly guilty (something I have struggled with in the past) and am healthier as a person and a friend for it. 

Critical thinking skills can be applied to daily life because all critical thinking is analyzing a situation and thinking of the different options available and making it so you will be able to make the one best for yourself in that moment and in the long run. These skills can be hard to manage at first, but once someone is able to get in a groove, it would make it much easier. An example of how Critical Thinking could impact my life if I practiced using it on a daily basis would be to have a slightly better handle on my overwhelming emotions. If I am able to just stop my emotions from making me do something very drastic, I would be able to see more options than what it is initially available and control myself more as well as not hurting myself and other people emotionally with words said in the moment.