You are explaining relational frame theory and from the first two seconds of hearing you I confirmed that you sound like an auntie. Quality content, it is
Thanks auntie. I'm a mental health nurse and ACT therapist. I was looking for a simple explanation of RFT and how this relates to ACT. This is just brilliant! Many thanks.
As someone who fell back in their bin this week, i really needed to hear this ♥️ I have made so much progress over the years, but some experiences make me doubt (in the moment) that it made any difference at all. It is important we remind ourselves that progress isnt a straight line. Thank you.
Really excellent video!!! So exciting to see something like this bring together language, cognition. behaviorism, and mindfulness (and quite a few other things that come to mind!). Most validating thing about RFT is how real it feels though. Like this is just relatable. We all know it's true and it's nice to hear it said/clarified! Especially through such an engaging video!
Hmmm...Our unique personal RF affects our best fit RF analogy!? I think of mine as either a grid net or a magnifying glass that helps to see clarify and categorise what's out there in the world. Noticing thoughts as NOT ourselves is the most helpful way of checking out the veracity of our "reflex" (aka instant unthinking!! responses). Thanks for your sticky web bin perspective! Ax
Hi, I just found this beautiful channel after researching the RFT and ACT, I started the video thinking RFT is similar to constructivism, then thinking is it similar to the concept of Schema amid of the video, and ended realising the beauty of it is to free us from our past learning via a constructivism lense
RFT and Beckian CBT. Really not much difference is there, Mr Hayes? That's why it's called third wave. But it's undoubtedly useful at filling in the CBT gaps, primarily for worry based disorders.
it sounds similar to free association, transference and resistance from psychoanalysis/psychodynamic of where the clients are relating a particular experience or memory to something in their real life which formulated their subconscious behavioural patterns.
Isn't this at odds with Chomsky's theory of language? He suggests we are not blank slates. Also, why is it called a triangle of thought? It seems to be an association. Whee = Zinkyfonk
Psychologically speaking we might be. Neuroplasticity could suggest we don't inherit psychological traits but learn them from our environment/care givers.
The first issue with “emotional problems” is not understanding the difference between an emotion’s form and its purpose. You know what a hammer is. You know what a hammer is used for. What happens when you use a hammer to color a picture? Dysfunction. Anger, as all other emotions, are merely tools. That was why they evolved/were designed. Their purpose is to motivate action, and, if they are not used to motivate action, they become are dysfunctional. There are a few basic concepts involved when discussing emotions that most do not acknowledge. First, there is the state of being. Knowing of only one state, no value hierarchy can be created. It is only through experiencing two different states can one begin to assign positive and negative values to any state. If all you event know is hunger, then ymit is impossible to assign “bad” to hunger because you have never experienced “satiated” to know the difference between the two. Knowing only hunger, hunger just is. To create a relational value hierarchy, you also need to be able to compare TWO distinct states. As you cannot be in two states at once (typically), you have to be able to recall a past state and compare it to the current one, or compare two past states. At this point, you can now assign relative values between the two states. This initial valuation will be simplistic and, generally, based on physiological stimuli. As more value hierarchies are established, more complex value systems can evolve (working hard in the fields causes discomfort like achy muscles, overheating, and increased hunger in the near future, but the food produced will offset any longer term starvation). While some things will have the same absolute negative value, their relationship to other values can be relatively higher creating a net positive value compared to certain states. State of being is compared to prior states and possible future states. Emotions serve the purpose of motivating oneself toward or away from a particular state. This simple premise leads to the conclusion that the duality off opposite states leads to dualities of oppostie emotions. This duality is conceptually an illusion, but it is an emotional reality. Satiation is the opposite of starvation, but they describe the same state from two different viewpoints. Being satiated means you are fed; starving means you are not fed. Subsequently, emotions serve the purpose of motivating us to ensure being fed since we have established being fed is better than not. However, viewpoint matters in regards to emotions as well. Fearing starvation is emotionally distinct than hoping to be fed, but they both serve the purpose of motivating us to act in a manner so as to be fed in the future. So, state of being coupled with the purpose of emotion to motivate is an important concept to understand when discussing dysfunction. An emotion is neither good or bad. What the emotion is used for is what is good or bad. Emotions that result in inaction creates dysfunction. Emotions that result in destructive action creates dysfunction. It is understanding the purpose of emotions that is the most relevant when addressing “emotional problems.” Lastly, “good and bad” are value judgements that begin at the visceral level, but they follow social evolution. This can simply be summed up as “what sustains existence is good, but social interaction augments or diminishes that value.” What society deems is “good” is invariably imprinted on the individuals of that society. The individuals of that society dictate what is “commonly good.” Obviously, societies can be “flawed” when compared to other societies, real or imagined. With “good and bad” being largely subjective once you rise above concepts like the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, emotional dysfunction is largely determined by subjective value systems. It is because of this, schools of thought in the realm of studies including philosophy and sociology play a large role in diagnosing and resolving psychological “dysfunction.” Psychology is merely the approximate explanation of biochemistry, and philosophy determines how an individual allows society to define the thoughts within the individual. If you teach kids that they are defined by words, then negative words will affect them negatively. If you teach kids that they define themselves, then words are exactly as they should be: powerless. Various therapies seem to rely telling the patient how to modulate emotions or actions caused by emotions. This is unfair. Some philosophical and physiological education should be incorporated to fully empower an individual to understand themselves so that they can make their own decision on what is “good and bad.”
Hi Joseph, thanks for taking the time to write this great comment, I feel that ACT addresses so much of what you say, ACT teaches us that our minds will constantly bombard us with thoughts/words and we can decide if we want to be led by these thoughts, we can ask "Are they helpful?" do they lead us towards building the life we want to create, being the person I want to be? ACT is a behavioural therapy so it is very much about taking valued action, and about learning how no emotions are "good" or "bad" they are just energy passing through that cannot harm us, but also they often have messages to us, and that can be the tricky part in my opinion! sometimes it is a signal we have just been "hooked" by our unhelpful thinking and we have gone off track and caught up in a "thought storm" and sometimes it is a signal to let us know we are not taking valued action, and I think the roles of Values in ACT help with this, to check in and see if we are taking action that is following our self chosen Values, The Choice Point and The Matrix are all fantastic tools to help see where we are getting stuck by our thinking or behaviour and how we can get unstuck by taking action in a valued direction. I love a Marsha M Lineham quote I came across last week " You can't think yourself into new ways of acting, you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking" I think we do also have to unlearn old beliefs too though that can be unconscious and think schemas are helpful with this which is often used with ACT and think this Carl Jung quote sums up the power of "unlearning" "Until you make the unconscious conscious it will direct your life and you will call it fate" For me ACT is about reclaiming your own personal power, being aware, understanding how our brains can trick us with unhelpful messages and how we can separate ourselves from them, and also how we can shape our brains by creating new neural pathways, understanding what emotions are and how to work with them, being able to see the bigger picture; self as context, having self compassion and compassion for others as we make our way through our lives and learn to make sense of it all! discovering your own personal Values and taking action to follow what matters in our hearts and when we do that we become "unstuck" and as we move forward using valued action we create a sense of autonomy and self mastery that motivates us to keeping moving forward with more courage and confidence in our own abilities which creates resilience and a new sense of freedom and often joy! : )
You, not only CAN think yourself out of new ways of acting, that’s the only way you can do it. Everything about you starts with a thought: ideas, emotions, actions. Furthermore, your subconscious is the result of all the information it processes: experiences and conclusions. Information is acquired through learning from direct experience or indirectly learning from another’s experience. The first state you learn is a low-level warmth and comfort and a vague sense of existence. Knowing only that, it is impossible to develops hope or to suffer. Once you exit the womb, the haze of sedation coupled with cold and bright light. Now you have a second state with which to create a hierarchical value system. The early years is an endless stream of new sensation which get voraciously devoured by a brain designed to seek new information. Relational value systems are built, but learning is sensational. After a time, abstrat learning begins which requires the ability to associate that which is tangible to that which is not. Learning is mainly about associating one idea to another. This ability to learn abstractly works in conjunction with society to heavily influence one’s personal value system. Psychological dysfunction is a product of philosophy, neurobiology, chemistry, any many other tangible and intangible parameter. Society plays a large role in conditioning individuals, just as individuals define the society. If society is shallow in its overall paradigm, individuals will suffer by way of losing self to the collective.
What if my negative thoughts are real i.e. correspond with reality? What if I really am Insufficient and weak? Yes I might still be able to recognize them as thoughts but i can not discard them as false. What if I really am inable to chase my dreams and visions because I know I do not have the required strength, courage, intelligence and abilities to actualize them? How do I regain faith in myself after such an realization and knowing that this realization is true? It seems unhelpful to dismiss the thoughts as thoughts when these thoughts clearly and truly warns me of comitting to my dreams cause i know that there will be an inevitable failure which will traumatize me even more and put me in a even worse predicament. I am hoping for an answer that may help me relate to the predicament in a healthier fassion.
Consider asking yourself what is it costing you in your life to hold to the belief that you can’t succeed in your dreams? How is that belief serving you? Is it truly allowing you to live the life you want? Also asking yourself what experiences, opportunities, thoughts, feelings, goals, am I avoiding or fearful of? Avoidance exacerbates fear and anxiety. Identifying if you’re avoiding anything can help bring struggles to light. Asking yourself what you value and what’s important to you in life? (Like your family, friends, a dream you have etc.) Committed Action can help you move toward your goals and what you care about, even in the face of obstacles. These are some concepts from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that you can feel free to look up online for more information about if you’re interested.
Self-as-Context is another part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. There’s also self-as-content. With self-as-content, you describe yourself and think about yourself in a certain way, creating a story of who you think you are. (Like saying I’m a failure and will be traumatized by this. I’m nervous, bad, ugly, a loser, dumb, scared etc.) when you believe that about yourself or identify who you are with a diagnosis, or shame for your body, you fuse your self-image and identity to how you talk about yourself and see yourself that exacerbates negative behaviors and beliefs. Self-as-content is your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, judgements, experiences, memories, emotions, behaviors, and things such as these. The content of your life is ever-changing, but who you are as a person, the self-as-context, this stable “I am” without any labels, remains the same. Your beliefs and behaviors are strongly influenced by the language and self-descriptions you use to describe yourself. If you say that you’re a failure and are depressed, you believe that about yourself and keep acting depressed, exacerbating negative behaviors. (For example, saying, “I have this illness, and because of this illness, I’m a sick person and feel broken inside or less than as a person.”) This is an example of fusing the self-image with illness-like you’re identifying who you are with the illness-you’re identifying with the content. Just using this as an example
A simple procedure from a radical behaviorism for emotional control that complements ACT, quickly refutable with a good swift kick. The ideal for any scientist with a great idea is to be able to explain it in a minute, and to confirm or falsify it as quickly. The world record for this arguably goes to the English philosopher Samuel Johnson, who rejected Archbishop Berkeley’s argument that material things only exist in one’s mind by striking his foot against a large stone while proclaiming, “I refute it thusly!” Here is a similarly novel and useful idea that can be confirmed or refuted with a proverbial swift kick, and with it an implicit criticism of behavior analysis, and why radical behaviorism is so important. Basic Facts: Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax. Their affective correlate, or how it ‘feels’, is a sense of pleasure. Fun Fact: When we are concurrently perceiving some activity that has a variable and unexpected rate of reward while consuming something pleasurable, opioid activity increases and with it a higher sense of pleasure. In other words, popcorn tastes better when we are watching an exciting movie than when we are watching paint dry. The same effect occurs when we are performing highly variable rewarding or meaningful activity (creating art, doing good deeds, doing productive work) while in a pleasurable relaxed state. (Meaning would be defined as behavior that has branching novel positive implications). This is commonly referred to as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience. So why does this occur? Dopamine-Opioid interactions: or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by mid brain opioid systems), and can actually stimulate opioid release, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure. Proof (or kicking the stone): Just get relaxed using a relaxation protocol such as progressive relaxation, eyes closed rest, or mindfulness, and then follow it by exclusively attending to or performing meaningful activity, and avoiding all distraction. Keep it up and you will not only stay relaxed, but continue so with a greater sense of wellbeing or pleasure. In addition, the attribution of affective value to meaningful behavior makes the latter seem ‘autotelic’, or reinforcing in itself, and the resultant persistent attention to meaning crowds out the occasions we might have spent dwelling on other meaningless worries and concerns. A Likely Explanation, as if you need one! A more formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory (i.e. a radical behaviorism) of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience is discussed on pp. 81-86.) The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work. Implications for behavior analysis: Rest is an affective state that is labile, or changeable, and is not a static and non-affective state, which is incorrectly presumed in the meditation literature. In addition, the modulation of pleasurable affect induced by rest is not dependent upon a species of attention (focal meditation, mindfulness meditation), but is ‘schedule dependent’, or correlates with the variability of schedules or contingencies of reward and the discriminative aspects of incentives (i.e. their cognitive implications). In other words, resting is affective, and its inherent affect is not static but dynamic, as the opioid systems activated by resting protocols can be modulated by dynamic or phasic changes in dopamine systems that are induced by concurrently perceived positive act-outcome discrepancies or expectancies which in turn incent us to avoid distraction and maintain a restful state. For behavior analytic approaches to emotion such as RFT and its therapeutic offspring ACT, affect is indirectly altered by private cognitive manipulations, but positive affect may also be modulated by abstract properties of very simple and public response contingencies. This provides an entirely complementary procedure for all psychotherapeutic perspectives that is thoroughly behavioristic, but does not demand a departure from any research or philosophical commitment. References: Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub) doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001029 The Psychology of Rest www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing The Psychology of Incentive Motivation www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature Meditation and Rest, from International Journal of Stress Management, by this author www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/ Berridge on Incentive Motivation lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publications/Berridge2001Rewardlearningchapter.pdf
Zoney06 ‘tabula rasa’ a long standing debate in philosophy/physiology/psychophysiology and psychology. This way my initial thought too, must go back to my readings and writings on the subject!
Tabula rasa (/ˈtæbjələ ˈrɑːsə, -zə, ˈreɪ-/ "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.
Best explanation of ACT and RFT I've come across. Thank you for your clarity.
Whoa! ACT Auntie explaining RFT in a short video! And others making it needlessly long. Damn...this channel is hidden gem!
You are explaining relational frame theory and from the first two seconds of hearing you I confirmed that you sound like an auntie. Quality content, it is
Thanks auntie. I'm a mental health nurse and ACT therapist. I was looking for a simple explanation of RFT and how this relates to ACT. This is just brilliant! Many thanks.
Magically powerful description of RFT.
As someone who fell back in their bin this week, i really needed to hear this ♥️ I have made so much progress over the years, but some experiences make me doubt (in the moment) that it made any difference at all. It is important we remind ourselves that progress isnt a straight line. Thank you.
Thanks ACT Auntie. I have never understood RFT before. You have made it so clear and relatable. I love this video.
Fantastic RFT explanation - thank you ACT Auntie! Subscribed :)
Hey ACT Auntie! This is an awesome explanation of RFT, thanks so much!❤❤
Really excellent video!!! So exciting to see something like this bring together language, cognition. behaviorism, and mindfulness (and quite a few other things that come to mind!). Most validating thing about RFT is how real it feels though. Like this is just relatable. We all know it's true and it's nice to hear it said/clarified! Especially through such an engaging video!
Thanks so much Frank, what a lovely comment, much appreciated! : )
Watched and bawled. 😵💫 Thank you for helping me. 🙏💝💐XXX
Hmmm...Our unique personal RF affects our best fit RF analogy!? I think of mine as either a grid net or a magnifying glass that helps to see clarify and categorise what's out there in the world. Noticing thoughts as NOT ourselves is the most helpful way of checking out the veracity of our "reflex" (aka instant unthinking!! responses). Thanks for your sticky web bin perspective! Ax
'Get out of your mind and into your life' - *Good ACT book that discusses RFT in more detail.
ACT Auntie, this is an awesome short video explaining RFT. I use it with my clients to show them the power of language.
Oh my goodness! I cannot thank you enough for this explanation!
KNOW THYSELF, LOVE THYSELF - a very old wisdom from pre-Grecian time.
I cried watching this. Also a good explanation.
thank you do much! I sent this to my young adult kids! Lots of love, Audrey
Wheeeeee!
Wonderful video. Thank you!!!
This was so amazing. My masters thesis was on stimulus equivalence. I’ve recently become fascinated with RFT and ACT.
Thank you for this video
Thank you! : D
naur but i teared up at the end
Great stuff!!! Thanks for talking about the tough stuff :-)
Janet Vowles w
thank for this video, I found it very illustrative and useful
Wonderful video ACT auntie...
Keep posting more. Subscribed!
Great animation. Thanks ACT Auntie. ❤
Hi, I just found this beautiful channel after researching the RFT and ACT, I started the video thinking RFT is similar to constructivism, then thinking is it similar to the concept of Schema amid of the video, and ended realising the beauty of it is to free us from our past learning via a constructivism lense
This is wonderful, thank you for creating this ❤
instructions unclear i've become schizophrenic while trying to seperate my thoughts.
this was so helpful for my RFT/ACT essay, thank you so much!
Thank you so much for such an insightful video
God dayumn, this is a great video.
Thank you for making this theory so understandable, with such a helpful explanation, an excellent video 🙂
beautiful message ❤
This was helpful! Thank you!
Thanks so much for this video! I was having a really hard time understanding this theory among all the jargon in literature and this really helped.
Great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Really good. Thankyou
Thank you so much, so good.
SO GOOD
Thank you
Love it!
Perfect
Brilliantly Act Auntie 💕
Thank yooooou! xx
this is so cool!!
Thank you!
Brilliantly animated bridge between RFT and ACT! Who is our ACT Auntie?!
Hello! : ) facebook.com/ACTAuntie/
Absolutely love this one!! The bin metaphor is the best! Can I share it with my following?
Kertzmann Oval
McGlynn Courts
thank you !
Satterfield Ports
All I can see and hear is Malan triangles O.O
Reminds me of Eckhart Tolle
❤
Joelle River
Frieda Drive
Brilliant way to integrate NLP into ABA and call it ACT.
RFT and Beckian CBT. Really not much difference is there, Mr Hayes? That's why it's called third wave. But it's undoubtedly useful at filling in the CBT gaps, primarily for worry based disorders.
it sounds similar to free association, transference and resistance from psychoanalysis/psychodynamic of where the clients are relating a particular experience or memory to something in their real life which formulated their subconscious behavioural patterns.
Didn't like the first sentence, but the rest sounded so right.
Isn't this at odds with Chomsky's theory of language? He suggests we are not blank slates. Also, why is it called a triangle of thought? It seems to be an association. Whee = Zinkyfonk
We are not blank slates at birth
Psychologically speaking we might be. Neuroplasticity could suggest we don't inherit psychological traits but learn them from our environment/care givers.
🕊
The first issue with “emotional problems” is not understanding the difference between an emotion’s form and its purpose.
You know what a hammer is. You know what a hammer is used for. What happens when you use a hammer to color a picture? Dysfunction.
Anger, as all other emotions, are merely tools. That was why they evolved/were designed. Their purpose is to motivate action, and, if they are not used to motivate action, they become are dysfunctional.
There are a few basic concepts involved when discussing emotions that most do not acknowledge. First, there is the state of being. Knowing of only one state, no value hierarchy can be created. It is only through experiencing two different states can one begin to assign positive and negative values to any state. If all you event know is hunger, then ymit is impossible to assign “bad” to hunger because you have never experienced “satiated” to know the difference between the two. Knowing only hunger, hunger just is.
To create a relational value hierarchy, you also need to be able to compare TWO distinct states. As you cannot be in two states at once (typically), you have to be able to recall a past state and compare it to the current one, or compare two past states. At this point, you can now assign relative values between the two states. This initial valuation will be simplistic and, generally, based on physiological stimuli. As more value hierarchies are established, more complex value systems can evolve (working hard in the fields causes discomfort like achy muscles, overheating, and increased hunger in the near future, but the food produced will offset any longer term starvation). While some things will have the same absolute negative value, their relationship to other values can be relatively higher creating a net positive value compared to certain states.
State of being is compared to prior states and possible future states. Emotions serve the purpose of motivating oneself toward or away from a particular state. This simple premise leads to the conclusion that the duality off opposite states leads to dualities of oppostie emotions. This duality is conceptually an illusion, but it is an emotional reality. Satiation is the opposite of starvation, but they describe the same state from two different viewpoints. Being satiated means you are fed; starving means you are not fed. Subsequently, emotions serve the purpose of motivating us to ensure being fed since we have established being fed is better than not. However, viewpoint matters in regards to emotions as well. Fearing starvation is emotionally distinct than hoping to be fed, but they both serve the purpose of motivating us to act in a manner so as to be fed in the future.
So, state of being coupled with the purpose of emotion to motivate is an important concept to understand when discussing dysfunction. An emotion is neither good or bad. What the emotion is used for is what is good or bad. Emotions that result in inaction creates dysfunction. Emotions that result in destructive action creates dysfunction. It is understanding the purpose of emotions that is the most relevant when addressing “emotional problems.”
Lastly, “good and bad” are value judgements that begin at the visceral level, but they follow social evolution. This can simply be summed up as “what sustains existence is good, but social interaction augments or diminishes that value.” What society deems is “good” is invariably imprinted on the individuals of that society. The individuals of that society dictate what is “commonly good.” Obviously, societies can be “flawed” when compared to other societies, real or imagined. With “good and bad” being largely subjective once you rise above concepts like the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, emotional dysfunction is largely determined by subjective value systems. It is because of this, schools of thought in the realm of studies including philosophy and sociology play a large role in diagnosing and resolving psychological “dysfunction.”
Psychology is merely the approximate explanation of biochemistry, and philosophy determines how an individual allows society to define the thoughts within the individual. If you teach kids that they are defined by words, then negative words will affect them negatively. If you teach kids that they define themselves, then words are exactly as they should be: powerless.
Various therapies seem to rely telling the patient how to modulate emotions or actions caused by emotions. This is unfair. Some philosophical and physiological education should be incorporated to fully empower an individual to understand themselves so that they can make their own decision on what is “good and bad.”
Hi Joseph, thanks for taking the time to write this great comment, I feel that ACT addresses so much of what you say, ACT teaches us that our minds will constantly bombard us with thoughts/words and we can decide if we want to be led by these thoughts, we can ask "Are they helpful?" do they lead us towards building the life we want to create, being the person I want to be? ACT is a behavioural therapy so it is very much about taking valued action, and about learning how no emotions are "good" or "bad" they are just energy passing through that cannot harm us, but also they often have messages to us, and that can be the tricky part in my opinion! sometimes it is a signal we have just been "hooked" by our unhelpful thinking and we have gone off track and caught up in a "thought storm" and sometimes it is a signal to let us know we are not taking valued action, and I think the roles of Values in ACT help with this, to check in and see if we are taking action that is following our self chosen Values, The Choice Point and The Matrix are all fantastic tools to help see where we are getting stuck by our thinking or behaviour and how we can get unstuck by taking action in a valued direction.
I love a Marsha M Lineham quote I came across last week " You can't think yourself into new ways of acting, you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking"
I think we do also have to unlearn old beliefs too though that can be unconscious and think schemas are helpful with this which is often used with ACT and think this Carl Jung quote sums up the power of "unlearning" "Until you make the unconscious conscious it will direct your life and you will call it fate"
For me ACT is about reclaiming your own personal power, being aware, understanding how our brains can trick us with unhelpful messages and how we can separate ourselves from them, and also how we can shape our brains by creating new neural pathways, understanding what emotions are and how to work with them, being able to see the bigger picture; self as context, having self compassion and compassion for others as we make our way through our lives and learn to make sense of it all! discovering your own personal Values and taking action to follow what matters in our hearts and when we do that we become "unstuck" and as we move forward using valued action we create a sense of autonomy and self mastery that motivates us to keeping moving forward with more courage and confidence in our own abilities which creates resilience and a new sense of freedom and often joy! : )
You, not only CAN think yourself out of new ways of acting, that’s the only way you can do it. Everything about you starts with a thought: ideas, emotions, actions. Furthermore, your subconscious is the result of all the information it processes: experiences and conclusions. Information is acquired through learning from direct experience or indirectly learning from another’s experience.
The first state you learn is a low-level warmth and comfort and a vague sense of existence. Knowing only that, it is impossible to develops hope or to suffer. Once you exit the womb, the haze of sedation coupled with cold and bright light. Now you have a second state with which to create a hierarchical value system.
The early years is an endless stream of new sensation which get voraciously devoured by a brain designed to seek new information. Relational value systems are built, but learning is sensational.
After a time, abstrat learning begins which requires the ability to associate that which is tangible to that which is not. Learning is mainly about associating one idea to another. This ability to learn abstractly works in conjunction with society to heavily influence one’s personal value system. Psychological dysfunction is a product of philosophy, neurobiology, chemistry, any many other tangible and intangible parameter. Society plays a large role in conditioning individuals, just as individuals define the society.
If society is shallow in its overall paradigm, individuals will suffer by way of losing self to the collective.
What if my negative thoughts are real i.e. correspond with reality? What if I really am Insufficient and weak? Yes I might still be able to recognize them as thoughts but i can not discard them as false. What if I really am inable to chase my dreams and visions because I know I do not have the required strength, courage, intelligence and abilities to actualize them? How do I regain faith in myself after such an realization and knowing that this realization is true? It seems unhelpful to dismiss the thoughts as thoughts when these thoughts clearly and truly warns me of comitting to my dreams cause i know that there will be an inevitable failure which will traumatize me even more and put me in a even worse predicament. I am hoping for an answer that may help me relate to the predicament in a healthier fassion.
Consider asking yourself what is it costing you in your life to hold to the belief that you can’t succeed in your dreams? How is that belief serving you? Is it truly allowing you to live the life you want?
Also asking yourself what experiences, opportunities, thoughts, feelings, goals, am I avoiding or fearful of? Avoidance exacerbates fear and anxiety. Identifying if you’re avoiding anything can help bring struggles to light.
Asking yourself what you value and what’s important to you in life? (Like your family, friends, a dream you have etc.)
Committed Action can help you move toward your goals and what you care about, even in the face of obstacles.
These are some concepts from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that you can feel free to look up online for more information about if you’re interested.
Self-as-Context is another part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
There’s also self-as-content.
With self-as-content, you describe yourself and think about yourself in a certain way, creating a story of who you think you are.
(Like saying I’m a failure and will be traumatized by this. I’m nervous, bad, ugly, a loser, dumb, scared etc.) when you believe that about yourself or identify who you are with a diagnosis, or shame for your body, you fuse your self-image and identity to how you talk about yourself and see yourself that exacerbates negative behaviors and beliefs.
Self-as-content is your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, judgements, experiences, memories, emotions, behaviors, and things such as these. The content of your life is ever-changing, but who you are as a person, the self-as-context, this stable “I am” without any labels, remains the same. Your beliefs and behaviors are strongly influenced by the language and self-descriptions you use to describe yourself. If you say that you’re a failure and are depressed, you believe that about yourself and keep acting depressed, exacerbating negative behaviors.
(For example, saying, “I have this illness, and because of this illness, I’m a sick person and feel broken inside or less than as a person.”) This is an example of fusing the self-image with illness-like you’re identifying who you are with the illness-you’re identifying with the content. Just using this as an example
A simple procedure from a radical behaviorism for emotional control that complements ACT, quickly refutable with a good swift kick.
The ideal for any scientist with a great idea is to be able to explain it in a minute, and to confirm or falsify it as quickly. The world record for this arguably goes to the English philosopher Samuel Johnson, who rejected Archbishop Berkeley’s argument that material things only exist in one’s mind by striking his foot against a large stone while proclaiming, “I refute it thusly!”
Here is a similarly novel and useful idea that can be confirmed or refuted with a proverbial swift kick, and with it an implicit criticism of behavior analysis, and why radical behaviorism is so important.
Basic Facts:
Endogenous opioids are induced when we eat, drink, have sex, and relax. Their affective correlate, or how it ‘feels’, is a sense of pleasure.
Fun Fact:
When we are concurrently perceiving some activity that has a variable and unexpected rate of reward while consuming something pleasurable, opioid activity increases and with it a higher sense of pleasure. In other words, popcorn tastes better when we are watching an exciting movie than when we are watching paint dry. The same effect occurs when we are performing highly variable rewarding or meaningful activity (creating art, doing good deeds, doing productive work) while in a pleasurable relaxed state. (Meaning would be defined as behavior that has branching novel positive implications). This is commonly referred to as ‘flow’ or ‘peak’ experience.
So why does this occur?
Dopamine-Opioid interactions: or the fact that dopamine activity (elicited by positive novel events, and responsible for a state of arousal, but not pleasure) interacts with our pleasures (as reflected by mid brain opioid systems), and can actually stimulate opioid release, which is reflected in self-reports of greater pleasure.
Proof (or kicking the stone):
Just get relaxed using a relaxation protocol such as progressive relaxation, eyes closed rest, or mindfulness, and then follow it by exclusively attending to or performing meaningful activity, and avoiding all distraction. Keep it up and you will not only stay relaxed, but continue so with a greater sense of wellbeing or pleasure. In addition, the attribution of affective value to meaningful behavior makes the latter seem ‘autotelic’, or reinforcing in itself, and the resultant persistent attention to meaning crowds out the occasions we might have spent dwelling on other meaningless worries and concerns.
A Likely Explanation, as if you need one!
A more formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory (i.e. a radical behaviorism) of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience is discussed on pp. 81-86.) The book is based on the work of the distinguished affective neuroscientist Kent Berridge, who was kind to review for accuracy and endorse the work.
Implications for behavior analysis:
Rest is an affective state that is labile, or changeable, and is not a static and non-affective state, which is incorrectly presumed in the meditation literature. In addition, the modulation of pleasurable affect induced by rest is not dependent upon a species of attention (focal meditation, mindfulness meditation), but is ‘schedule dependent’, or correlates with the variability of schedules or contingencies of reward and the discriminative aspects of incentives (i.e. their cognitive implications). In other words, resting is affective, and its inherent affect is not static but dynamic, as the opioid systems activated by resting protocols can be modulated by dynamic or phasic changes in dopamine systems that are induced by concurrently perceived positive act-outcome discrepancies or expectancies which in turn incent us to avoid distraction and maintain a restful state.
For behavior analytic approaches to emotion such as RFT and its therapeutic offspring ACT, affect is indirectly altered by private cognitive manipulations, but positive affect may also be modulated by abstract properties of very simple and public response contingencies. This provides an entirely complementary procedure for all psychotherapeutic perspectives that is thoroughly behavioristic, but does not demand a departure from any research or philosophical commitment.
References:
Rauwolf, P., et al. (2021) Reward uncertainty - as a 'psychological salt'- can alter the sensory experience and consumption of high-value rewards in young healthy adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (prepub)
doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0001029
The Psychology of Rest
www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing
The Psychology of Incentive Motivation
www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature
Meditation and Rest, from International Journal of Stress Management, by this author
www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation
Berridge Lab, University of Michigan sites.lsa.umich.edu/berridge-lab/
Berridge on Incentive Motivation
lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publications/Berridge2001Rewardlearningchapter.pdf
How to step outside your thoughts and become the observer of those thoughts: kheper.net/topics/meditation/who_are_you.htm
I don't agree that we are blank slates. It seems like a very dangerous way of thinking, and a little insulting.
Zoney06 ‘tabula rasa’ a long standing debate in philosophy/physiology/psychophysiology and psychology. This way my initial thought too, must go back to my readings and writings on the subject!
Tabula rasa (/ˈtæbjələ ˈrɑːsə, -zə, ˈreɪ-/ "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.
The first sentence is wrong! People aren’t born as blank slates. We are born with reflexes.
Thank you!
Thank you.
❤
Wheeeeee!!!
Thank you.