CBT - "automatic thoughts" and meditation

CBT – "automatic thoughts" and meditation
The real power of present-moment awareness in modern living
Alexander De Foe

Purpose of Presentation
To outline the benefits of Meditation in reducing the negative effects of automatic thinking.

Thoughts Patterns
Most of our mental processing occurs in patterns.
Common mental 'responses' occur at a level just beneath conscious control, and we often find ourselves using the same reactions throughout similar life situations.

Thoughts Patterns
Reactive thoughts that we find it difficult control (and are often unaware of) are called 'automatic thoughts'.

Thoughts Patterns
For instance, if someone cuts in front of us on the road, an automatic thought might be "what an idiot"
The thought happens so fast that we don't plan to have it, it just occurs as a reaction as part of our general thinking pattern.

Meditation
Meditation and Mindfulness practices help break those automatic patterns that we experience.

Meditation
Once we learn to be aware of ourselves – our breathing and our bodies "here and now" then our mental process becomes less reactive and more proactive.

Meditation
Reactive and compulsive thinking reduces as a result of these practices.
Meditation brings us back to there 'here and now' where the mind is less inclined to add 'automatic commentaries' to our life experiences.

Mental Commentaries
Cognitive therapists suggest that the content of automatic thoughts and mental commentaries is defined through core beliefs at a deeper unconscious level.

Mental Commentaries
For example, someone who experienced a road accident riding a bike earlier in life might have formed the belief that "riding bikes is dangerous."
The belief is formed once, but the automatic thinking that results throughout life is continuous.
So whenever he sees a person riding a bike on the road he might experience automatic commentaries in his mind such as "what is he doing riding a bike on the road?" or "she should be more careful" and a number of variations that reinforce the negative belief.

Mental Commentaries
Meditation reduces mental commentaries. The benefit of this is two-fold:
Recognizing that much of our automatic thinking responses are antiquated and originate as far back as childhood when those old (and often inaccurate) beliefs were formed.
Reducing mind-chatter and being more present-oriented than past-oriented. Instead of re-experiencing beliefs about the past, we gain more insight into the present.

Cognitions
Let's keep in mind that automatic thoughts often last a split-second and we aren't aware that we have them most of the time.
This thinking occurs on a pre-conscious level.
Catching automatic thought processes in the act can prove difficult – changing them without belief-reframing is even more so.

Cognitions
Once we can be mindful, or meditate on our breathing for even 2-3 seconds at a time then we can stop a great deal of automatic thinking.

The Benefits of Meditation
Meditation helps us achieve a more stable mind and emotional state without work around reframing beliefs.
Reduction of automatic thinking is often long-lasting as a result of meditation:
Once we are in the 'here and now' we often perceive our experiences from a fresh perspective and belief change often happens on its own accord with a less skewed, present-moment perspective of our life experiences.

The Benefits of Meditation
Meditation therefore can help us "reclaim our own mind" and in a manner of speaking replace the space where automatic thinking arises with present-moment awareness.

Reduced Negative Emotion
Cognitive therapists often acknowledge the relationship between automatic thoughts and emotional states.

Take an example where someone slips on an area of wet concrete on the footpath, falling forward and knocking the person in front of them over.
The person in front might not see the wet concrete and assume that the person behind him pushed on purpose:
The automatic thought could be "what's his problem?" and the emotional response could be initial anger and irritation about being pushed.

This is a simplified example. Often our negative emotions related to automatic thoughts can last hours or longer when we believe someone said or did something he or she did not mean.
Meditation often equates to present-moment observation: observing and gathering empirical data from the outer world rather than reacting to our inner world.
The indirect results of this often include a calmer and more stable mental-emotional state in the long term.

Publication Details
Published online March 13, 2010.
Author: Alexander De Foe
Alexander De Foe is a meditation instructor and at present a Masters in Counselling student at Monash Univ.

CBT - "automatic thoughts" and meditation

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CBT - "automatic thoughts" and meditation — Presentation Transcript