Easing The Struggle - Getting Unstuck From Sticky Thoughts

This meditation begins with a mindful grounding practice and then offers a guided visualization to teach you an effective and evidence-based strategy for getting unstuck from unhelpful thoughts and beliefs. The visualization draws on a skill known as "cognitive de-fusion" (from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy [ACT]). It's a skill you can build over time, the ability to not get so caught up in your thoughts - particularly the unhelpful ones that contribute to your stress and anxiety. You can draw on this strategy any time you need to. Combining this practice with mindful grounding and relaxing in the body is a great way to invite a sense of safety into the practice.

Good luck! Please feel free to share and I'd love to hear how this was for you.

Transcript

Hi this is Jasmine Bristow with a meditation that is designed to help you get distance from difficult thoughts. So you can start by finding yourself a comfortable position somewhere where perhaps you can sit upright feeling some energy through your body, Feeling a sense of openness and a settling in, Relaxing. Take a moment to scan around your body with your mind's eye looking for any tension or tightness and seeing if you can release, Relax, Let go. If there's any areas that are particularly tight you can invite the breath into that tightness. Imagine breathing into it, Softening the breath, Gently breaking away the tension. Bring your awareness to your breath now, Noticing what you notice, Perhaps the sensation of air at your nostrils or in your nasal passage or the movement of your ribs. Take one more opportunity to scan around your body with your mind's eye, Again noticing if there's any tension that's crept back in, Seeing if you can soften even more, Release, Relax, Let go. And now I want you to bring to mind something that you've been worrying about, Perhaps a thought that your mind keeps going back to that you feel really stuck on, Maybe it's a situation that's turning over in your mind a lot, Maybe it's a thought or a belief that feels really sticky for some reason for you. And I want you to really imagine bringing that thought to mind, Almost like you were turning the volume up on it, Really let yourself go there. And as you do that, Take a moment to notice what happens in your body, You might notice your breath gets shorter or tension comes into your neck or shoulders, You might also notice emotions coming up. So again, Bring that thought back to mind, Or the situation, Really let your mind go there, Allow yourself to stew or ruminate for a moment. And now I want you to imagine all of the thoughts that are happening right now for you being encapsulated in a big bubble, Using your imagination to picture these thoughts, Beliefs, Whatever you're thinking about a situation. Imagine all of that in a big bubble. And that bubble now is just going to float in front of you. Maybe it's right up against your face, Very close. Now in your mind, I want you to imagine yourself taking a step back. So starting to get a little bit of space between you and the bubble. You can still see all the thoughts, They're all there. But maybe now there's, There's a little room to breathe. And let yourself take a couple more steps back, Feel into the distance that's starting to occur between you and the bubble, The bubble that's holding all of these swirling thoughts or beliefs. Or maybe it's one really strong thought. And as you stand there looking at the thought that's in the bubble, You notice that the bubble is also starting to move away a little bit, Getting a little further and further away from you. And as you notice that distance growing, Check in with your body. How does it feel? What's happening there? What do you notice in your body as there's a little bit more distance growing between you and the bubble? Even as you can see these thoughts, They're still there. But now there's a little more distance between you. Take a moment to feel into that growing space between you and the bubble. Maybe you're seeing it get even further away. Breathe into what it feels like to have some distance between you and whatever is in that bubble. And then slowly let that image fade. Perhaps as it fades, The bubble gets further away. But I want you to come back to feeling yourself in the here and now. Maybe come back to noticing your breath, Feeling yourself in your seat, And taking a moment to sit with whatever's coming up for you following that little visualization. So this little activity gets us in touch with a skill that we call distancing or diffusion. It comes from acceptance and commitment therapy. And it also is very much rooted in mindfulness. Tapping into the idea that we are not our thoughts, We have thoughts. But a lot of the time when we're in a difficult situation or having a rough time, Our thoughts are very much fused with us, Hence the term fusion or cognitive fusion. We feel like our thoughts are true, Like perhaps there's a real sense of urgency. The reality of these thoughts almost lives in our body. We really feel those thoughts as true. And an exercise like this can help us to get distance, To cognitively diffuse from these thoughts so that we have a little more freedom and flexibility, Room to move and breathe, And ultimately choose how we want to proceed in a different way, Perhaps with more perspective, With more balance, Perhaps actually more in touch with who we want to be rather than where that thought was keeping us stuck. So I wish you luck. And if this was helpful, Please feel free to share or reach out to me. I would love to hear how this experience was for you. All the best.

Reviews

Hello, Jasmine 🌼

I’m grateful for you did this meditation. It was great — especially without music

and so I want to share my experience here:
at first, it was difficult for me to put my thoughts into the bubble ( I feel cold before meditation because of fearful thoughts) — thoughts keep coming back to my mind — it was like chewing gum again and again stiiick to the teeth

then, when you started talking about bubble, I thought you’ll tell to make the babble pop, but, on the contrary, you suggest to make a step back from it and then make a little bit more distance — in this moment for the first time I could see my thoughts separated from me

I continued breathing and it something that really helped me (for the first time tbh) to calm down and feel how warm growing up in my body

after your meditation I feel more relaxed and not so afraid of the thoughts which I had before

thank you so much one more time 🌼

wish you all best,
Kate

-Great visual technique! I find it difficult to get distance from thoughts when I’m afraid I won’t follow though and do what I need to for myself - such as set a boundary or express a need. This practice helped me gain this awareness. Thank you!

What a relief! Thank you! 💚🙏

Thank you very much. Very helpful and useful to know. The perfect start to any day.

I do ACT with my therapist and find defusion to be extremely helpful with my ruminating thoughts!