The missed connection between automatic thoughts and alternate thoughts in CBT
The missed connection between automatic thoughts and alternate thoughts in CBT
In the recent few years, I have not been able to practice much meditation due to some recurrent health issues. Sometimes it needs a lot of patience. Sometimes it is too difficult to sit. Sometimes I simply forget to practice. And many other reasons. But one thing is for sure. If I sit, there is always some benefit. It maybe that I come to know how disturbed or distracted my mind is. It may be that I have some new insight during the practice. It maybe that my mind improves in awareness. But surely, there is some benefit.
The importance of Samadhi (concentration) has been known from ancient times. Samadhi is also known as Jhana (in Buddhist practices) originating from the Sanskrit word Dhyaan meaning concentration. The Buddhist Zen practice also means the same.
So, the idea is to develop the mind in concentration and once Samadhi is established, one can observe our thoughts, feelings and other mental content to develop an alternate objective view which is the right view (Vipassana) of the universe.
Samadhi is thus a very important part of mindfulness teachings. It is instrumental in developing objectivity and objectivity is everything.
When we sit for Anapana meditation, which is the concentration practice and the basis for Vipassana, what we do is observe our breath while watching the thoughts arising in us nonjudgmentally. Thoughts may arise. But we keep our focus calmly and steadily on the incoming and outgoing breath. If we get distracted which happens very often if the mind is disturbed, tense, sad etc, we come back to our breath without any reaction. No additional sadness, frustration needs to be added. We just have to simply bring it back to the breath and continue with the practice. The key concept here is of “nonjudgmental awareness” or “objectivity”.
When I sit once in a while, I am able to easily see how distracted or tense my thoughts have been by watching the nature and intensity of the thoughts and how frequently the mind wanders away. The more the mind wanders into the thoughts, the less concentration there is. By continuously watching this without any judgment or reaction, mind comes back to its original calm and focused state by itself. It’s really a wonderful technique and works like magic. So simple yet so profound.
Some of the readers may be acquainted to the concepts of “automatic thoughts” and “alternative thoughts” in Cognitive behavioral therapy. What are these and why are they important. CBT is a practice on calming down our hot thoughts or automatic thoughts that seem to arise by itself in the mind by letting our mind generate alternative balanced thoughts. The idea is to diminish the hot thoughts and accentuate the effect of the balanced alternative thoughts in our mind. But what are these automatic thoughts or alternative thoughts. Let’s dig further.
Automatic thoughts in CBT are thoughts that arise in the mind due to our perceptions and sensory contact with the outside world. We are constantly in contact with the sensory universe- seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting etc. Due to the inputs we receive our sensory mind reacts and generates thoughts and feelings and sometimes even images or sounds as a response. We hear our thoughts most of the times. For example, as we are walking towards a shop, we will see a vegetable seller and our mind will generate the thought- “Oh I need to buy cabbage”. This is an automatic thought. It’s like a knee jerk reaction to the sensory stimulus outside. But many times such a reactionary thought is not harmful. Like you thinking of buying a vegetable is a healthy thought. But if you are walking and you meet a neighbor that you had an argument with last time, your mind will generate a thought- “I hate this guy!”. This can be a harmful thought because it is not generated with a wholesome mind.
Our mental states, perception levels keep changing during the day, and so how we react or respond depends upon that. But more often than not, what mind generates is automatic thoughts coming from a mind entangled in the sensory universe. These thoughts look automatic but are actually not automatic. They are a response and since the response happens very quickly in our mind, we do not seem to understand what really happens and so we call it “automatic” response. But in reality what happens has been explained clearly by the Buddha in PaticcaSamuppada- the chain of causal reaction, the lesson on conditioned phenomena- the main teachings of any Buddha. I have briefly explained that here in another blog.
Alternative thoughts in CBT on the other hand are ones generated from a more settled and balanced mind. The very fact that alternative thoughts exist is assurance enough that our minds can change or in fact keep changing during the day. We as human beings have alternative perspectives to the same situations or events. Different feelings generate different perspectives, and an objective mind generates the right and balanced perspective. For example, once we come back home from our walk our mind may feel settled after connecting with family again and so one may have an alternate balanced thought for the neighbor- “It’s ok. I don’t really hate the guy. I was just a bit agitated that day which caused me to think negatively of him”. A balanced alternative thought comes from an objective perspective. But such a mind can be and needs to be developed. It cannot be dependent upon outside circumstance and is not.
Anapana meditation simply helps achieve that.
By focusing on our breath instead of our thoughts, our mind settles down not chasing the thoughts and their stories anymore and is able to generate a balanced perspective. This practice helps with developing concentration and concentration simply means withdrawing from the senses and moving away from the idea of “I” and becoming more “objective” or “non-self-ish”. This has to be practiced daily to get the benefit. One cannot rely on chance to help give us the opportunity to have a balanced perspective.
Thus, concepts of CBT originate in Buddha’s teachings of mindfulness. And although CBT can be practiced to get the therapeutic effects, it is important to understand what these concepts are, deeply enough, to be able to make an impact on our minds. Just blindly practicing won’t help.
