Cognitive Defusion and Cognitive Restructuring Techniques
The important way to lower anxiety is to see thoughts as simply thoughts and pay attention to how we react. Once we begin to pay attention to our thoughts, we will soon start to see our thinking habits. Here are some usual unhelpful thinking habits linked to anxiety to pay attention to:
1. Imaginary Concern
Worrying is normal, and it turns into a useless thinking pattern only when we concentrate too much on imagined worries instead of real ones. Hypothetical worries are thoughts like “what if?” and are usually about things we cannot control. This kind of concern is normal for individuals who are uneasy with the feeling of not knowing what will happen. On the other hand, practical concerns are things we can do something about, and they can help us stay organized.
2. Thinking again and again
Rumination is when we keep thinking about negative experiences, focusing on things that have upset us, also known as ‘overthinking’. This unhelpful way of thinking becomes especially troublesome when we concentrate on the reasons and effects of upsetting events rather than on what we’ve learned and how we would act differently in the future.
3. Thinking the worst
People who go through imagined worry and deep thinking might also be likely to blow things out of proportion. This is when our minds leap to the worst possible outcomes, blowing the negatives out of proportion, or as the saying goes, ‘making a big deal out of a small problem’. People who tend to imagine disasters might find their thoughts creating pictures of the worst possible outcomes, which studies show usually causes more stress than anxiety from thinking.
4. Pessimistic Thinking
When our thoughts focus on the negatives and aren’t balanced by acknowledging the good, we’re experiencing pessimistic thinking; it’s like our minds have put on a pair of Negativity Glasses which filter out anything positive. The glass is always half empty.
5. Black-and-White Thinking
When our thoughts centre on seeing situations and people in terms of extremes, labelling things as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, ‘perfect or ‘imperfect’, we’re experiencing black-and-white, or ‘all or nothing’ thinking. In reality, the world is full of shades of grey. Acknowledging these can play a big part in helping you reduce anxiety.
In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy , when we’re not aware of the space between our thoughts and our response to them, we’re experiencing cognitive fusion.
In the cognitive fusion state, you forget that thoughts are just thoughts, you treat them as truth, and you fall deeper and deeper into downward spirals of challenging emotions.
In other words, your Negative thinking always end up hijacking your mood.
Buddhist philosophy offers lots of helpful tips and metaphors for mental wellbeing.
In Buddhism, as well as the Western notion of five senses – sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch -they have an additional sense, ‘mind’ or ‘mental object’. Minds are seen by Buddhists as a sixth sense that creates a filter on top of reality.
The Buddha taught that mental suffering arises from mistaking that filter for reality itself. Just as we can observe what we see, smell, hear, taste, and touch, we can also observe the activity of our mind.