Research shows that practicing mindfulness can be extremely helpful to those challenged by addiction, as well as depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and more. However, the abstract nature of mindfulness can make it challenging to teach in a way that is meaningful and—more importantly–actually translates into the daily lives of our participants.
There is a paradox about using mindfulness with teens in treatment that amuses, challenges, and energizes me. Namely these resistant youth with impulse control issues are exactly the ones who need to most learn mindfulness! I’ve found that when these youth learn a tool that really works, such as mindfulness, they will readily embrace it. However, these youth often have deeply rooted thinking habits that often prevent them trying something new. As such, I believe the journey to mindfulness for these youth starts by helping clients challenge their own thinking habits. Most cognitive-behavioral approaches talk about thinking errors. I prefer to conceptualize these as thinking habits, not errors, because I believe that—like any habit—they can be changed.
I recall a bumper sticker I saw once which said, “Don’t believe everything you think.” To me, this bumper sticker succinctly states one of the most important lessons of mindfulness in a treatment setting. In his book, Full Catastrophe Living, Kabat-Zinn (1990) presents seven methods that will help an individual to not believe everything he thinks. They are non-judging patience, beginner’s mind, trust, non-striving, acceptance, and letting go. Returning to the bumper sticker, in an effort to not believe everything you think, it seems to me that non-judging is perhaps most relevant.
Non-judging allows an individual to transcend thinking habits such as personalization, or relating negative events to oneself when there is no basis; dichotomous thinking, or all-or-nothing thought patterns; selective abstraction, or focusing on limited aspects of a situation; and, magnification or minimization, also defined as distorting the importance of particular events or behaviors of others (Herkov, 2006).
When an individual engages in maladaptive thinking habits, she believes that her thinking is reality. For example, not only might she think all people are good or bad, she also believes this to be true and unchanging. Through the practice of mindfulness, this individual is would begin to discover that thoughts are actually temporary, that her belief that all people are good or bad is subject to change, and that she does not need to believe this thought.
Linehan (qtd. in Baer, 2003) stated that thoughts are “like waves in the sea.” Through mindfulness practice, an individual is able to develop an awareness of the transitory nature of his own thoughts. Once this awareness has been established, an individual is able to engage in “urge surfing,” a concept common in many forms of traditional cognitive therapy. Urge surfing can also be applied to responding to thinking habits. Instead of believing what you think, choose to ride the wave through the thought, letting it crash on the shore and then retreat.
Perls (qtd. in Walsh and Shapiro, 2006) stated, “Awareness—in and of itself—is curative.” If he was correct, then developing an awareness that one’s thinking habits are transitory, not a permanent reality, will allow an individual to separate oneself from those habits. This suggests that by developing an awareness of one’s maladaptive thinking habits, they will automatically decrease. Through this process of disidentification, when a thinking habit does occur then the individual is able to “observe it, recognize it as merely a thought, and [remain] unaffected by it” (Segal, William, and Teasdale, 2002).
The use of disidentification would seem to offer significant therapeutic promise for individuals with a wide variety of hard-to-treat thinking and behavioral habits, including, of course, alcohol and drug related problems. Indeed, dialectical behavior therapy, originally developed for use with individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, is now being regularly utilized in the treatment of many other issues stemming from maladaptive behavioral or thinking habits. In my own clinical practice as a chemical dependency counselor, I regularly utilized this concept of disidentification as a strategy for relapse prevention.
Practicing mindfulness and developing a non-judgmental perspective can assist an individual in establishing new cognitive patterns (Baer, 2003). These new patterns are likely to be free of maladaptive thinking habits, since the individual has developed an awareness that previous thoughts were “just thoughts” (Kabat-Zinn, qtd. in Baer, 2003). In other words, developing a non-judgmental perspective can lead an individual to realize that he truly does not have to believe everything he thinks, that he is not his thoughts, and that thoughts aren’t facts (Kabat-Zinn, 1990).
This goal of developing a non-judgmental perspective can be found in both traditional cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based systems, such as that developed by Segal, Williams, and Teasdale. It can also be found within dialectical-behavior therapy, where a strong focus exists on fostering non-judgment with the objective of increasing mindfulness, as well as interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.
Kabat-Zinn (1990) wrote, “Recognizing you thoughts as thoughts can free you from the distorted reality they often create and allow for more clear-sightedness and a greater sense of manageability in your life.” Developing an awareness of the difference between thoughts and reality is perhaps the core value of cognitive therapy (Segal, Williams, and Teasdale, 2002). Ingram and Hollen wrote, “Cognitive therapy relies heavily on helping individuals switch to a controlled mode of processing that is metacognitive in nature” (qtd. in Segal, Williams, and Teasdale, 2002).
Based on their analysis of cognitive therapy, Segal, Williams, and Teasdale (2002) concluded that metacognition was necessary for individuals to develop an awareness of thoughts as thoughts, not reality. Indeed, they suggest that disidentification is not the result of cognitive therapy, but rather the essential component for this approach. So, if you do not have to believe everything you think, then disidentification is the method for developing this non-believing.
Disidentification, as developed through mindfulness meditation practice “allows us to look at the problems our thinking creates for us” (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). These problems of thinking include not only the maladaptive thinking habits previously mentioned, but also self-defined limits on one’s own thoughts. Kabat-Zinn (1990) wrote, “We tend to see more through our thoughts and opinions than through our eyes.” In other words, what an individual believes not only determines what that individual thinks, but also what that individual perceives. Perhaps the bumper sticker should be amended: You don’t have to believe everything you think or see.
When an individual does believe everything she thinks or sees, she is likely to become stuck in predictable behavioral patterns, and these patterns will likely reinforce her erroneous beliefs, perpetuating a cycle of maladaptive thinking habits that become ever more difficult to escape. Kabat-Zinn (1994) wrote, “The simple act of recognizing your thoughts as thoughts can free you from the distorted reality they often create.” Through the practice of mindfulness, an individual is able to develop awareness and disidentification, which allows her to discover what the bumper sticker declared, that he truly does not have to believe everything she thinks.
References
Baer, R. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: a conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 125-142.
Gunaratana, B. H. Mindfulness in plain english. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
Herkov, M. (2006, December 10). About cognitive psychotherapy. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/about-cognitive-psychotherapy/
Kabat-Zinn, J. Full catastrophe living. New York: Random House.
Kabat-Zinn, J. Wherever you go, there you are. New York: Hyperion.
Segal, Z., Williams, J., and Teasdale, J. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New York: Guilford Press.
Walsh, R., and Shapiro, S. (2006). Meeting of meditative disciplines and western psychology. American Psychologist, 61(3), 227-239.
