CBT & Mindfulness
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on recognizing the connections between thoughts, feelings, behaviors and symptoms (such as anxiety and depression) and changing our automatic negative thoughts. CBT emphasizes being one's own scientist on themselves (their symptoms, thoughts, behaviors) which involves them becoming more AWARE (mindful) of their thoughts, feelings, and urges. The treatment includes learning, practicing and mastering relaxation/soothing skills and then gradual exposure to stressful stimuli with systematic desensitization. This means practicing the relaxation skills during exposure to a stressor (such as imagining driving across a bridge) and then once able to tolerate that, increase the magnitude of the stress (such as riding as a passenger over a bridge and eventually driving across). The other component is "cognitive restructuring" in which people learn to recognize their thoughts and practice replacing them with more useful ones, noticing the effect that their thoughts have on their mood and their stress level.
- Automatic negative thinking/conditioned response: One can use mindfulness practices to become more aware of their automatic/conditioned responses and their effects, and can use mindfulness to practice countering these responses with more realistic, balanced and self-respectful responses. Some automatic negative thoughts include: "if Bobby doesn't want to date me it must mean I'm undesirable to everyone" "nothing good ever happens to me" "everyone else loves their life" "everyone else has an easier life" "if everyone around me isn't having a good time it is my responsibility" "if Bobby doesn't talk much and scowls around me it must mean he doesn't like me"
- Things aren't done "to you." Things happen in the world and we can determine how we perceive them, interpret them, and respond to them
- Type A and type B personality styles (including using type A traits to charm subconscious to be more type B)
- Focus of control: Where does one perceive control to exist? Internally? Externally? One can use mindfulness to refocus our attention on the things that we can control. Choose how you want to use your energy and time (maybe not trying to convince someone of something or change their opinion)
- Black and white thinking: i.e., "I'm either perfect or a failure." "It is good or it is bad."
- Worst-case scenario analysis—imaginal exposure: imagining yourself surviving and coping with the worst-case scenario (or doing the task in a calm competent matter-of-fact manner) and being able to imagine feeling good about getting through it (e.g., testifying in court, giving a toast)
- Thought stopping and self-talk, learned optimism