Seeing Thoughts as Creations of the Mind: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)

a century ago Sigmund Freud popularized the idea that we all have an unconscious that lies deep below the surface of our awareness motivating our actions in ways that are highly complex and that take considerable time to unearth and understand [Music] those in mainstream academic psychology at the time rejected such ideas as unprovable and focused instead on observable behavior in a movement known as behaviorism so Fierce was this reaction against Freud that it was only in the late 1960s and the 1970s that behaviorally oriented psychotherapists started to take seriously the interior world of their patients the subjective domain of thoughts memories ideas predictions and plans and they made a remarkable discovery most of what drives our emotions and behavior is not deeply unconscious but just below the surface of our awareness not only that but this Rich interior world with its motivations expectations interpretations and story lines is accessible to all of us if we just dare look we can all become more aware of the stream of Consciousness going on in our minds Moment by moment it often takes the form of a running commentary if it is potentially damaging to us it is not because it is buried deep in the psyche but because it is virtually unattended we've gotten so used to its whisperings that we don't even notice it is here and so it shapes Our Lives once we have reacted to a particular situation we rarely go back to check on whether our interpretation was actually accurate most often our minds don't consider a range of options our first impressions reactive as they are are usually taken as an accurate readout on reality the way it really is the example of the scenario in which you were asked to imagine a friend failing to acknowledge you from across the street shows how even small differences in our mood and thinking can determine our whole perspective on an event these little shifts in mood and thought end up entangling the Mind creating more feelings and downward mood spirals as the thinking mind ruminate on and on to find answers that don't come and so we create a story a drama about me that may gradually wander far away from the Here and Now and far away from the way things actually are as we've seen our thoughts influence our feelings and Body Sensations and are themselves influenced by our feelings and Body Sensations but that does not make our thoughts true no matter how compelling they may feel in mindfulness-based programs one very effective strategy for regaining mental balance is to attend to the direct experience of feelings in the body as far as thoughts themselves are concerned through mindfulness we can cultivate a new and very different relationship to them allowing thoughts simply to be here instead of analyzing them trying to work out where they came from or trying to get rid of them in any way in Awareness we see them immediately for what they actually are constructions mysterious creations of the Mind mental events that may or may not accurately reflect reality we come to realize that our thoughts are not facts nor are they really mine or me when cultivating mindfulness we adopt this orientation for a very good reason because if we can perceive a thought such as I'm a loser or a thought such as I'm worthless or I'm always going to feel this way if we can think about those thoughts just as thoughts we instantly Rob them of their power to upset us our task is not only to become more aware of our thoughts but to become aware of them in a different way to relate to them from within the being mode of mind in being mode it becomes much clearer which thoughts are helpful and which are merely the endless propaganda of depression if you've been practicing the meditations described up to this point chances are that your relationship with your thoughts has already begun to shift maybe you occasionally find yourself responding differently perhaps even smiling when you catch yourself jumping to the usual Doom and Gloom conclusions or assumptions like she's trying to undermine me and make me look foolish or I'll never get this job done or I always say the dumbest things maybe you don't start to brood as quickly following such thoughts or perhaps you can think of something that used to trigger immediate upset without getting charged up by it now you may find yourself just letting the thought with all its potential baggage Float by such changes May reflect the fact that perhaps without realizing it you've already begun to learn how to respond more skillfully to your thoughts during meditation a thought arises lingers in Consciousness for a relatively short while then fades it's just a mental event an object that we can pay attention to but that is neither me nor reality but sometimes we may need a more concrete way to shift our perspective so as to perceive it in that way and our sense of hearing May provide such a way think of it this way the mind is to thought as the ear is to sound if we think of the Mind in this way then perhaps we can learn to relate to thoughts that arise in the mind in the same way that we relate to sounds arriving at the ears normally we may not even be aware of the extent to which the mind is receiving thoughts until we refine our ability to be aware of them by analogy mindfulness of hearing can help us develop a similar sense of openness towards our thoughts allowing them simply to come and go without enticing us into the drama they're creating we can practice attending to sounds and hearing for a time and then move to seeing if we're able to relate to thoughts and thinking in the same way the instructions for a practice of mindfulness of hearing and thinking are on track six of the guided practice session the more we engage in the various formal meditation practices the more we may notice ourselves having reactions to what we are experiencing we'll find ourselves judging how well things are going with the meditation practices perhaps criticizing ourselves if we think we're not feeling what we're supposed to be feeling we may begin to think that we're not very good at meditating such occasions are wonderful opportunities to remember that judging and criticizing are really just more thinking Jacob one of our program's participants found that his daily meditation and practice was frequently accompanied by a running critical commentary he would find himself saying you've lost it again can't you even stay focused on your breath for half a minute at a time this is a waste of time you're messing this up just like everything else you try can't you get anything right what's wrong with you what a failure you are let's remind ourselves again this is a very common experience almost Universal it also provides us with a great opportunity gradually we may come to realize that awareness of these patterns of thought as thoughts is meditation how can we help ourselves to see this one possibility is to give a name to the patterns of thinking that habitually occur we could use labels such as judging mind or hopeless mind or identify them as sub-personalities like my worst critic or doubting Thomas and so on such labels may help us see them with some degree of non-attachment as frequent visitors to the Mind rather than identifying with them as parts of ourselves or hearing them as The Voice of Truth or reality identifying such negative judgmental thoughts as recurring mental patterns can be of enormous help in allowing us to relate to them more objectively and less personally if you're depressed there's a number of these unpleasant negative self-attacking thoughts that might occur I'll read a list of some of the most common examples of these thoughts that have been reported by many many of our depressed patients here's the list I feel like I'm up against the world I'm no good why can't I ever succeed no one understands me I've let people down I don't think I can go on I wish I were a better person I'm so weak my life's not going the way I want it to I'm so disappointed in myself nothing feels good anymore I can't stand this anymore what's wrong with me I'm worthless I wish I could just disappear I'll never make it my future is bleak it's just not worth it if you've experienced periods of depression in the past even hearing this list may take you back not wholly willingly to the thoughts that dominated your mind at those times even if you haven't experienced prolonged bouts of depression you may recall having thoughts similar to these when feeling down now the critical thing is this when we are depressed and experience these thoughts they don't feel like just thoughts they seem to be telling the truth about us the truth about our self-worth the truth about the state of Our Lives but almost everyone who experiences depression has almost exactly the same thoughts this suggests a very different possibility these thoughts are part of the territory part of the landscape of depression they are symptoms of depression in just the same way as aches and pains are symptoms of the flu viewed in this way these thoughts may tell us a great deal about the thinking patterns that go along with depression and about the way a low mood can affect our thought processes they tell us very little about the real state of ourselves or the world or the future this alternative way of viewing such negative thoughts comes across particularly powerfully when people go through a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy program with others who like them have experienced multiple episodes of depression and are now relatively well as part of the program people are shown the same list of automatic thoughts we've just heard and are asked whether any of them feel familiar when they all answer yes all of them or something similar something remarkable happens for many a moment of realization occurs this is depression it's not me the participants in the class view one another as normal people friendly supportive funny every last one of them has at some point in the depths of Despair harbored the private conviction that it's me only me who is no good now they realize that other people have the same negative automatic thoughts while depressed and believe them with every fiber of their being suddenly they don't feel quite so alone more than that they'd begin to see how powerful depression is how terrifyingly persuasive it can be when we were at our worst point we were convinced that we were the world's worst person and the future was doomed and now perhaps only a few weeks later we can look back and wonder incredulously how could I ever have thought that if we can adopt the perspective of allowing thoughts to be seen and known and recognized in Awareness for what they are in this moment our relationship to them will be altered in the next moment in that way we can free ourselves from their entangling distorting harming potential identifying and naming our recurrent thought patterns is one really helpful way to see the tapes in the mind for what they are recognizing them when they're starting up allows us to say something like ah I know this tape this is my I'm a total failure tape or my I'll never be happy tape this will not necessarily switch it off or if it appears to it will almost certainly return soon the difference will be in the way we relate to it as a highly conditioned and inaccurate tape running in the mind that will continue to be an inconvenience until the battery is run down and it ceases of its own accord amazingly in the domain of the mind this cessation can come about naturally without any forcing or struggling when we are able to see to grasp to understand what is going on with Clarity and self-acceptance in the understanding is the release and the cessation this is the Cardinal characteristic of awareness and clear seeing it is embodied and inhabited through the gift of mindfulness practice a gift we can give to ourselves over and over again up to this point we have described the practices of mindfulness meditation as they are taught sequentially in the mindfulness program each of these practices directs us repeatedly to focus our attention in a specific way on a particular aspect of our experience in this way we are progressively cultivating our capacity to be mindful to develop the skills that can free us from unhappiness and depression the next practice unifies all these separate strands of training in mindfulness and reveals them to actually be elements of one seamless whole this is the practice of choiceless awareness to begin cultivating choiceless awareness in formal practice we can include a few minutes of it at the end of any of the other practices we're engaged in as is the case towards the end of track six of the guided practice session it's always possible to jump to choiceless awareness at any moment simply by letting go of any and all objects of attention this sounds easy but it is in fact a very challenging practice because we have nothing specific to focus on we are resting in Awareness itself without any attempt to direct our attention toward anything other than awareness itself there is no need even to think that you are meditating or that there is even a you to meditate even these are seen and known as Thoughts by awareness and in the seeing in The Knowing they are seen to dissipate again like touching soap bubbles as we engage in this practice we may become increasingly aware of the distinction between the objects to which we can direct our attention if we choose and the space of awareness in which all our experiences arise awareness like space is boundless having no edges or limits the invitation is to settle into this awareness to be the knowing the non-conceptual knowing that pure awareness actually is awareness is not itself subject to pain although it Bears profound and empathic witness to pain and so once we have become acquainted with it we may find it easier simply to hold even the most difficult and painful of our experiences within it we may even make the curious but profound discovery that awareness is already free intrinsically whole and deeply knowing