SAME OLD THINKING – SAME OLD RESULTS

Just because you think it, doesn’t mean it’s true

 

While cognitive fusion is the process of believing that our thoughts are literally “factual,” cognitive defusion is the ability to consider thoughts simply as thoughts. The result of defusion is usually a lessening in the thought’s power over us as we loosen our attachment to the thought. The thought would not be something you had to believe or disbelieve, but would be only something you would notice. The goal of practicing defusion is to become a little bit more flexible around the thought, and to have a little more distance from it.

STOP, STEP BACK, OBSERVE (the thoughts and feelings, what's happening to/for the other person).

Notice what's happening - your thoughts, physical sensations, emotions, images, memories. Notice the way you're interpreting what they mean, and how that's affecting you.

Notice the unhelpful thoughts. It can help to say them differently, in a non-threatening way: slowly, in a squeaky or comic voice or write them down.

Identify the emotion you're feeling, and label the unhelpful thoughts as

• an evaluation or judgement
• a prediction
• a feeling or sensation
• a memory
• an opinion
• an unhelpful thinking habit: mind-reading (assuming we know what others are thinking), negative filter (only noticing the bad stuff), emotional reasoning (I feel bad so it must be bad), catastrophising (imagining the worst), the internal critic etc.

Below are some strategies you can try to gain some perspective on your own thinking:

1.     Create distance from your thoughts. Try to preface problematic thoughts with, “I am having the thought that ….I am a loser.”

2.     Repeat a troublesome thought out loud over and over until it loses its meaning.

3.     Try singing your thoughts or saying them in funny voices.

4.     Visualize a river with leaves floating along. Picture calmly placing each thought on a leaf and watch as it glides down the river.

5.     Picture yourself as a mountain, with changing seasons, storms and all kinds of weather. The mountain remains rooted and grounded, unchanged by passing storms. You can be like the mountain and observe thoughts, feelings and sensations.

6.     Visualize fluffy clouds gliding in the sky. Picture each thought rising to a cloud and observe as it drifts away.

Use this technique each and every time you have a self-demeaning thought, especially about your body, your weight or you ability to become (and remain) a slender individual. This will dramatically increase your motivation instead of losing faith in yourself.