TED:Ideas "5 Effective Exercises to Help You Stop Believing Your Unwanted Automatic Thoughts"

“Most of us live with a constant stream of internal statements, criticisms and commands running through our heads. But we do have a choice: We don’t have to let them define us — or our days,” says psychology researcher Steven Hayes.

In his TED:Ideas article he outlines 5 strategies for overcoming this, a process called “defusion” as he puts it, part of his Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) program. He advocates trying to change one’s relationship to one’s thoughts and emotions, rather than trying to overcome their content. Some of the suggestions might seem a little counter intuitive or even silly at first, but they are backed up by research. “Much of the time, most of us are living in a state of cognitive fusion — fully buying into what our thoughts tell us and allowing them to overly direct our actions and choices,” he says. Our thoughts are our attempt to make meaning of the world, but they are supposed to be there to serve us. We forget that we are the thinker of the thoughts, so a process of “defusion”, the act of stepping back and observing the ongoing thoughts, can be useful. This article covers some of these strategies: https://ideas.ted.com/5-effective-exercises-to-help-you-stop-believing-your-unwanted-automatic-thoughts/