Imagine that you are driving to a job interview. You have entered the address into the GPS and you are on your way. Suddenly, all the alarms go off, the GPS warns you of the arrival of a cliff. You stop the car in its tracks. However, you look through the car window and see nothing. It doesn’t matter – you tell yourself – the GPS is always right, even if it doesn’t see it, the cliff is surely hidden there. You are blocked.
At this point you have two options, you can back out and look for another path, although you probably won’t make it to the interview on time. Or, you can think that GPS is not an extension of reality, but simply an interpretation of it and move your car forward. The first option would be a perfect example of cognitive fusionor what is the same, let our thoughts have control of the car. While the second option represents the cognitive defusionthat is, understanding that you are not the GPS (thoughts), but the person who drives the car.
The thoughts They are proposals or maps that our brain generates about reality. Some of these proposals can be very useful to us to achieve our goals. goalsbut many others can be annoying and paralyzing.
Cognitive defusion is a psychological technique from anxiety therapy. acceptance and commitment which helps us deal with negative thoughts. The objective of this technique is not to change the content of our thoughts, but the way in which we relate to them by minimizing the influence that certain verbal associations (thoughts) have on our conduct.
How to train this mental skill
There are many exercises that can be done to train this wonderful mental skill. The first of them consists of putting a name to that part of our mind that is responsible for constantly pointing out everything negative (both in ourselves and in the reality that surrounds us). In this way we are promoting a distancea disidentification. We are not what our mind tells us and therefore we can act as we please.
Another classic cognitive defusion exercise consists of repeat a word out loud as many times as possible in 30 seconds. For example, let’s take the word “blue”, allow yourself to do the experiment. Have you seen what has happened? The word blue has stopped making sense for a few seconds… Imagine now what would happen if that thought that torments you – ‘I am a failure’ – stopped dominating and being behind each of your actions.
Finally, I propose a challenge. Try to repeat out loud ‘I can’t lift my arm’ at the same time you raise your arm above your head. Have you been able to achieve it? Well, the next step is to dare to take on that challenge that you have always dreamed of even though your mind keeps telling you that you will never achieve it and that it is a bad idea.
The research indicates the effectiveness of cognitive defusion in reducing the credibility and emotional discomfort generated by certain private events, such as one’s own thoughts, reaching the level of and in some cases surpassing techniques such as cognitive restructuring, stopping thoughts. thinking or self-instructions among others.
So you know, your mind is designed to interpret the reality around it. Sometimes the proposals will be very useful but at other times they will be an obstacle that will get in the way of your valuable paths and those things that make life worth living. You choose, remember, you are the one driving the car.
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