How Cognitive Defusion can unhook you from the mental loop.
Our thoughts have a profound impact on the habits we form, the behaviors we embody, and the way we see ourselves. It’s 100% true that, the way we talk to ourselves via thoughts has a direct impact on our mental health & thus derives itself onto our physical health.
It’s important to know, understand & label our thoughts to attain good mental health.
Its an NLP session that reshaped the way I think and see my thoughts and ever since there in no turning back to old patterns.
The instructor opened up the session with this line
“How many of you believe yourself” please raise your hands.
Almost all of us raised our hands. But to our surprise, she said well done, but that’s where you are going wrong. Quite intrigued by her response, I waited for her to complete & here’s what she shared :
Do not believe yourself rather believe in yourself.
Take a moment to realize the difference. It made me feel wow then & even now while I write this.
If we believed everything that our mind says especially the negative thoughts/ feelings then there is very less what we can do. There is no bigger support than our will & if that turns against us there is no way.
We all go through plenty of thoughts that don’t really help us. These could be big bully thoughts, small fears, hesitations, assumptions and so on.
But what is not so common is learning how to deal with it.
While I started to dig deep on this post my session, I came across this concept called “Cognitive Defusion”
Cognitive Defusion originally called cognitive distancing by the founder of cognitive therapy, Dr. Aaron Beck is a process where — under certain circumstances — we choose a different relationship with the stream of thought that flows through our heads.
As I read more about it, I realised how important of a life skill it is which was never part of my academic journey.
Cognitive Defusion in simple words is to distance ourselves from negative thoughts and look at them rationally. It’s looking at them rather than looking through them.
By simply shifting our perspective, we can profoundly enhance our relationship with ourselves which is the foundation from which all other connections grow.
Few methods to implement Cognitive Defusion on negative thoughts
Evaluation
When you take up an evaluator role for your negative thoughts, immediately rationality kicks in. Your perspective towards these negative thoughts will shift & you start to reason it via facts only to eventually defer them. You would realize most of these negative thoughts stem from a space of “What ifs” and not an actual reality.
Switch to Present, Turn off Past & Future
Have a codename to address these negative thoughts. You can call them any negative character & that should trigger you to move towards present reality & not the possibility. I loved the movie Luca where this method is shown in a very creative manner. Throughout the movie, the protagonist addresses his self-doubt thoughts by saying “Silence the Bruno” which shifts his focus to the present moment.
What a simple yet effective way!
Slow down & Breathe
This is the go-to mantra for intentional living in general & I was very happy to know about its mention while reading about methods to implement Cognitive Defusion.
Slowing down & focusing on your deep breaths is the easiest & most effective way to focus. This pushes you to be in the moment & also has a lot of health benefits.
Blabber the thought Loud in a Goofy Tune
This one is a funny way to handle it. It’s said that when you say it aloud in a funnier voice it pushes you to disassociate the feeling from that negative thought. The reason behind, when you say it in a very funny/ goody tune, your mind drops the seriousness of the thought & co-relates it to a fun element/ light moment. Thus warding off its effects on the mind.
Those are some of the techniques that are both easy as well as sensible to tackle the most common challenge that we face internally.
Switching to present is my favourite one & works for me like magic. What about you?