Defusion Of Thoughts - Week 1 Series On Principles Of ACT Therapy

We often get entangled and fused with our negative or anxious thoughts, believing them to be true can lead to us struggling with anxiety, fear, or depression. This practise includes a few techniques to maybe help detangle from these thoughts.

Transcript

Hello,

Thank you for joining me.

Today I'm going to begin a series.

The theme is based on acceptance commitment therapy or ACT.

ACT therapy goal is to increase psychological flexibility.

Instead of being rigid and fused with our thoughts,

Which in turn affects our behaviors and ultimately our lives.

The therapist helps to bring a more gentle acceptance of what is going on.

In ACT there is no goal as such to get rid of what we might call symptoms.

There is just an opening up to whatever is there,

An allowing of whatever thoughts and feelings are present.

And a byproduct of this is a reduction in the symptoms.

ACT therapy is a mindfulness based therapy and has proved to be extremely effective in helping people with anxiety disorders,

Depression,

Low self-esteem and addictions.

It is based on six main processes.

These are number one,

Diffusion,

Number two,

Acceptance,

Number three,

Being in the present moment,

Number four,

Observing the self,

Number five,

Values,

And number six,

Committed action.

In this practice today we will be looking at diffusion.

So I invite you to close your eyes if you wish or focus on something in front of you and soften the gaze if this feels better for you.

Allow yourself to think about a problem that you might have,

That you don't seem to be able to sort out.

It could be something like losing weight or stopping smoking or stopping another habit.

It could be fearful or anxious thoughts or feeling down or feeling really depressed.

Whatever is your issue,

Think about it for a moment.

Think about what you have done to fix this problem.

The diets you might have been on,

The exercise programs,

The money you might have spent,

The programs you have followed,

The therapists you have seen,

Medication you've taken.

Think about everything you have done,

Everything you have followed or joined.

I'll give you a couple of minutes.

I'll give you a couple of minutes.

Now think about each individual thing that you have done and ask yourself,

Did this work for me?

Did this bring me closer to the life I really want?

How much time did I spend on this?

And how much money did I spend on it?

Okay,

Now I want you to picture someone stuck in quicksand.

The problem with quicksand is the more you struggle,

The quicker you will go under.

The trick is to lie back with your arms out and float,

Not struggling.

This would be tricky as a natural instinct is to try to swim your way out,

But that actually would be the worst thing you could do.

It's the same with any problem that you have.

The more you struggle and resist and fight against it,

The more entangled you will become in it.

The more you fight against it,

The more overwhelmed you will feel.

Let's consider the thoughts we have about our issues.

Look at what your thoughts are saying.

It might be things like,

I will never change.

I will always be fat.

I can't.

I'll never be able to stop.

I will always feel like this.

Things will never get better.

I'll never be able to,

And fill in your own blanks there.

Why me?

I can't stick to anything.

I'm so unlucky.

I'm useless.

What usually happens is that we get caught up in these thoughts,

Entangled,

Fused with them as if they were absolute truth,

Literal facts,

Reality that it's actually happening,

That they are really important and we need to give them our full attention.

We believe in them and we allow them to rule us,

Frighten and disturb us.

Now imagine that you are sat in a cinema looking at the screen.

And watch these sentences on the screen.

Imagine that all the thoughts you have about your issue are there on the screen.

Choose one of the sentences,

One of the negative thoughts you might have about yourself,

And say it out loud to yourself.

Say it again now and this time notice where you felt this in your body.

Did you feel it deep within your stomach or your chest?

Did you feel it deep within your head?

Or did you feel it somewhere on the surface of your body,

Somewhere on the skin?

Repeat this if you need to notice where the sensation is for you.

And now using the same negative thought,

Just add a little bit onto this.

And say,

I am thinking.

And then add your sentence onto the end.

So if your sentence might have been,

I'm useless,

Now it will be,

I am thinking I am useless.

Say this sentence out loud to yourself and notice where this sits in your body.

And now let's try this again and add a little more.

Add,

I notice that I am thinking.

And then add your sentence onto the end.

For example,

I notice that I am thinking,

That I'm useless.

Repeat your sentence with the additions out loud and notice now where the sensations are in your body for you.

Maybe you notice that the sensations have changed.

Maybe they started off feeling deep inside and now you notice they have moved outside of the body.

Maybe you notice there is a lighter sensation.

And maybe you haven't noticed any changes.

It's all OK.

Imagine that your negative statement is written across the screen in big,

Bold,

Dark lettering.

Read your sentence out loud in a very solemn and serious voice.

For example,

I am useless.

And now change the colour of the words on the screen.

Make it a lively and happy colour.

Change the font too.

Make it a happy font.

Now say your negative sentence in a really happy voice.

And now change the colour and the font and the size of the statement into a kind of cartoon script.

You could have cartoon shapes or animals around it too if you want.

Make it really animated and fun and daft.

And now repeat your sentence in a really fun and daft voice.

Go on,

No one can hear you.

I am useless.

Try that again and notice how that feels within your body now.

Maybe you notice that it's impossible to feel any kind of heaviness with it now.

Maybe not.

Maybe this helps take the edge off that statement for you.

Maybe not.

Let's try one more.

Imagine you are still sat in your cinema room.

There is a pair of yellow goggles to the side of you.

Imagine putting them on.

The lenses are yellow.

Everything has turned yellow.

Have a look around.

The screen is yellow.

The ceiling is yellow.

The carpet is yellow.

Your seat is yellow.

Even your hands and your legs are yellow.

Question.

Has everything actually turned yellow?

The answer is obviously no.

The goggles have made everything look yellow but nothing has actually turned yellow.

Could this be the same with our thinking?

Could we be wearing negative goggles?

Anxious goggles?

Fearful goggles?

Is it possible that it's these goggles that are polluting how we see things?

That these may be contaminating the actual truth,

The legitimate reality?

Is it possible to see that the things you think are not always fact?

Allow yourself to relax now.

Allow the mind to drift.

Drift and float.

Drift and float.

Noticing any thoughts that arrive.

Noticing what is there for you.

Maybe you need to do some more work on more thoughts that have arrived.

So repeat this meditation as often as you need.

But remember,

Don't struggle against them.

Back in the quicksand,

Arms out and float.

Bring your attention back now to the air against your skin.

Notice how this feels.

Notice any sounds outside or inside the room.

Notice where you are in your space.

And when you are ready,

Open your eyes.

Thank you.

Reviews

Wonderful and immediately helped calm my anxious mind. The visuals and tools are easy to understand and incorporate as a daily practice.

Thank you for sharing and look forward to listening to more. 🙏

Great practice of this technique! Will definitely use this with my mindfulness group in our program.

What a wonderful way to swim out of our troubled thoughts. Thank you 💖

That was great. Did a feel a bit silly? Okay, yes I did. But giggling to myself about my high pitched daft voice took away the solemnity of my original, negative view about my abilities. This was so useful to me and also very interesting. thank you.

I found this meditation very helpful and will definitely listen to it again. Also a very kind voice. Thank you 🙏🏻

Loved This. “I am thinking” instantly changed the thought I was having. It made me realise I was “thinking” and that did not make my thought true. So simple yet so powerful. 🙏

I have been working my way thru the ACT book, (in week 4 actually) and was surprised and pleased to find this here. Very well done. I'll continue the series.

More therapy-based meditations like this please! ✨💜🍥

Dealing with OCD and Anxiety and this was really good/useful for me 🙏🙏🙏

Some of this meditation made me laugh and that's just what I needed today 😁 Thank you, Mandy 🌟

Reframing! Brilliant! Thank you. Bought relief. 🦋😊

Lovely, thank you! 🙏🏻

Very helpful session, first in the series on ACT. Thank you.

Great companion to my first reading of the Happiness Trap. Thank you.

Absolutely AWESOME!!! Exactly the type of informative and practicle guidance I am looking for during a difficult time. Thank you so much!! I look forward to the rest of this series and will be starting your course on ACT here on Insight Timer too. Namaste. 🙏

Wow... so helpful. A new way to deal with struggle. Thanks so much!🙏🧡🙏

Very helpful. Beautiful. Thank you.

So helpful! Thank you 🙏

Brilliant practices and imagery.
With gratitude 🙏🏼
Janet

Dear Mandy, these suggestions are just so great! I can’t believe how simple but effective they are, with saying “I am noticing that I am thinking” and changing the colour, font and voice of our thoughts. For me it completely defused the power of the thought. Thanks so much Mandy and I am looking forward to the next in the series!