ACT offers a reasonably comprehensive and wide ranging approach for handling negative Self Thought and other aspects of thought and emotional processes and provides an approach to achieving long term happiness through the management of those aspects of the thought and emotional processes. It further goes on to provide direction on how to achieve a happy life.

What I provide in this book is an overview of ACT. A more detailed explanation is contained in the book "The Happiness Trap" by Dr Russ Harris (14).

As I proceed through this site I will be referring to methods proposed by ACT to deal with different aspects of Consciousness and different methods of achieving happiness. I agree with most of what ACT has to say however there are some aspects where I differ. I will mention those where they arise. I may also use different terminology to official ACT to keep the terminology consistent with the rest of this site.

ACT and Negative Thoughts

In this particular section I will explain how ACT proposes that people deal with negative Self Thought.

The first thing that ACT teaches is that you have very little control over your thought processes. This is easily demonstrated if you attempt to stop thinking.

Do it now - try to think of nothing for the next thirty seconds.

* * *

I have already mentioned some approaches to achieving this, through the concept of the Consciousness Vessel, however assuming that you have not yet mastered these techniques and haven't had any other training and practice in meditation techniques, stopping thought processes is very difficult to do. You probably found thoughts about lots of subjects popping into your head in an uncontrolled fashion. As a variation on this for the next thirty seconds try not to think about happiness.

* * *

Again you would find this very difficult.

Another aspect that ACT teaches is that thoughts are not Gospel and that thoughts do not have to be acted upon. As a very simple example of this, if you are sitting think three times "I am going to stand up". But then you don't.

What is the importance of these simple examples? These examples are just to show how little control you really have over your thoughts and also that just because you have a thought it does not mean that the thought is true. Nor does the thought have any particular power over you. You only have to do what the thought says if you want to. This is particularly important when you have a negative Self Thought.

Further, ACT teaches that negative thoughts are inevitable (15), however as these thoughts might be neither true nor useful to achieve a fulfilling life most of the time they therefore should be discounted or at least treated skeptically. Your life should not be run on the basis of every day Self Thoughts. ACT therefore proposes a number of techniques whereby people dis-associate from their negative thoughts or learn not to treat them so seriously. These various methods are called Defusion techniques, that is, they are methods of breaking your perceptions of fusing with a Thought, that you and the Thought are one.

As an example a person might be having a thought "I can't do this, I am going to fail". This Thought is possibly or probably a re-occurring thought that may be preventing a person from pursuing a valued goal. A non ACT approach to this might be to effectively have an argument with yourself to convince yourself of the fallacy of the thought. For example you think, "I have done this before, I am well prepared there is no reason for this to fail." Your thought process might throw up a counter argument for why you will fail so then you put up counter counter arguments as to why you won't fail. And so on. This process is meant to keep going until you have effectively countered all arguments and shown that the Thought is not true. But even then there is no guarantee that the Thought won't re-occur in the future. It is probably will.

ACT takes a different approach. The ACT approach to (Self) thought is to recognise that the thought is not you. When you have the Thought "I can't do this, I am going to fail" firstly recognise that it is only a thought therefore not necessarily true nor important. Also recognise that the thought is not you i.e. you are not fused to the thought. ACT suggests various methods of achieving this "defusion" of the thought.

One method that highlights the difference between yourself and your thoughts is my inserting the statement "I am having the Thought that . . . ." prior to the Thought. Taking the example from above when you had that thought you would change it to "I am having the Thought that I can't do this and that I am going to fail." The statement is no longer seen as a set in stone fact but is recognised for what it is, just a Thought.

Another of the method of defusion is to restate the thought in a comical or different way.

For example a person may choose to put the thought to a tune! I know that this sounds strange but remember the purpose is to make the thought less serious to you. So you might put it to the tune of "Happy Birthday" or "Looney Tunes". Who can treat any Thought seriously when set to these tunes? Of course you can choose any tune you want (so long as it is light or has a comic edge) and vary it as much as you like. I further suggest that if you are in public that this tune singing is strictly a mental process. If not you may find people looking at you strangely. If in private then go for it. I am sure you will find the results hilarious. If it is hilarious then you can't take the thought seriously. The thought is effectively defused.

Another variant is to imagine your favourite cartoon characters saying the words of the negative thought, each in their own peculiar voice.

A different approach is to thank your mind for the thought. So if you have the thought "I can't do this. I am going to fail" as soon as you are aware that you have had that thought simply thank your mind. E.g. "Thanks mind for that vote of confidence in me" or "Thanks mind for that helpful thought." This method can seem to make use of sarcasm but it doesn't need to. It should really be done in the spirit of an acknowledgement of, or a bringing to consciousness, the operations of the mind. It is an observation of the operations of the mind rather than a critique and through that observation you recognise the true nature of the operation of the mind. If you wish you could use the more passive - "Thanks mind - that was interesting input". After thanking your mind you then continue on with what you really want to do.

Another technique is "name that story". In many cases the negative thoughts that you have are re-occurrences of thoughts that you have had previously. So much so that you can begin to recognise them as a repeat of the same thought or story that you have told yourself before. Consequently you can name the story. E.g. "Oh there's the 'I can't do it story' or 'there's the 'I'm no good story'". Once the thought is named it is recognised as just a repeat of the same old pattern of thought. As a story you can recognise that it is just a set of words that need not have any impact on you.

We will come back to ACT later to look at the ways ACT suggests to handle negative emotion.

Other Ways of Handling Negative Thought

There are many useful ways other than ACT for dealing with negative thought. It is often very useful to effectively remove the reason for the negative thought. I contend that if there is an easy way of effectively and permanently dealing with the negative thought this should be investigated and used in preference to dealing with it by using an ACT method. Why by-pass the troubling thoughts if you can easily get rid of them permanently. However this will generally only work with certain classes of thoughts.

Understanding and Forgiveness

One particular source of negative thought is acquired through your interaction with other people. Often you can be hurt emotionally by something another person may do or say. This may be intentional or unintentional.

If someone has transgressed against you, or you believe that they have, you will have a whole series of negative thoughts about them. For example someone, knowingly or unknowingly, insults you, you may feel indignant and hurt and begin to have a whole series of thoughts about the injustice of it or how you should respond, or should have responded, and perhaps, in typical negative Self Thought style, whether that person was indeed right in their insult. These thoughts can go on for hours, days or longer. And what is the result of these thoughts? The person who has transgressed against you may be miles away and may have even forgotten about the insult. Your thoughts are not hurting them at all. In fact the only person that is suffering is you. These thoughts are filling your consciousness and being interpreted by emotion into stress and anxiety and general unhappiness. And these negative thoughts and emotions are filling your Consciousness Vessel so blocking out more positive thoughts that could have happiness causing potential, thoughts that could be assisting you to achieve a valued goal.

So if you can get rid of these thoughts it is worthwhile.

You can do this by understanding, or trying to understand, what may have caused the other person to transgress against you. Understanding by itself may be enough to cause the negative thoughts to subside and/ or to loose their impact on you. However you may also be able to go to the next stage and forgive them for the transgression as well.

The first stage of understanding is the recognition that the other person is probably very much like you. Their Self Thought processes are probably racked with the same doubts and uncertainties as you. Or if they are not exactly the same they will probably be similar. Their Self Thought processes are probably operating to protect and build up their self-image by working to try to prove to themselves that they are better than the other person, better than you.

Their Self-image, like yours, has been built up over years. There may be something in their history that has meant that they have learnt that insulting the other person is one way they can prove to themselves, to their Self Thought processes, that they are better, or at least not lesser than, the other person. They may be modelling behaviour they saw as a child, behaviour that re-emerges in their adulthood. They may be modelling behaviour that is acceptable in their current social group or groups and by doing so they believe they are less likely to be excluded from the group or may gain the favour of the group.

With this understanding you can see the reasoning behind the behaviour and realise it is just their Self Thought processes at work. So why would you treat their Self Thought processes more seriously than what ACT teaches you to treat you own Self Thought processes? The answer is, don't. It's not worth it. It's not that important. Instead of occupying your thoughts with non-productive negative thoughts you could be thinking thoughts that have happiness causing potential or allowing room for Awareness based happiness.

Now that you understand what may be behind the insult or other transgression you may wish to go to the next level: forgiveness, so you don't hold residual grudges against the person, so the negative thoughts don't re-emerge. This approach is easy if the person that has transgressed has recognised the transgression and apologised. If the apology is sincere then forgiveness is easy. If their apology is thought to be insincere or they haven't apologised and you believe that they may keep transgressing against you or others then forgiveness is not so easy. So unless you are aiming for sainthood forgiveness isn't strictly necessary to enable you to deal with the negative thoughts and emotions from your dealing with this person.

What about a situation where you can't understand the transgression and/or you can't forgive. In these situations I would encourage one of the following approaches:

to understand that their words, opinions and acts, however expressed, are not that important to you; and/or
use ACT to defuse the negative Self Thoughts and the associated negative Thoughts towards them. Use ACT expansion - see below - to deal with the negative Emotions.

And move on.

Benefits of Negative Self Thoughts

Do Negative Self Thoughts have any positive effects? My answer to this question is simple - Yes.

If you are thinking about setting up a new business to begin to work in a field or interest or which is aligned with your values - more on this later - then it is quite likely you will have negative Self Thoughts, which may act to dissuade you from proceeding with the venture. For example you may have the Thoughts, the negative Self Thoughts, "I am going to fail, I am going to loose all my money and me and my family will be thrown onto the streets." What do you do with this Thought?

With any Thought there are three possibilities:

The Thought is false;
The Thought is partially false and partially true; and
The Thought is true.

If the only thing you do is to use the various techniques suggested by ACT to disassociate from the Thought, and then dismiss it and proceed into the business the approach could be fraught with danger. When you have a thought such as these you need to use your rationality / Intellect to determine the validity of the Thought.

Back to the example of the Thought referred to above. The Thought reflects a concern with the risk associated with the new business. It is a valid concern, although the way the Thought has been expressed, like a lot of Self Thought, is alarmist, catastrophising the risk and looking at the worst case scenario. While you can recognise the alarmist nature of the Thought you should not ignore the core concern, the Thought could be true, the business could fail. Whether or not your family ends on the street depends on the level of risk involved. Alternatively the Thought could be false, in which case the business would be a success and you would be working in a field of interest and value and potentially increasing your happiness. The third possibility is that the business may not be as successful as you hope.

How do you determine which of the three options is correct? You need to use your rationality, which is an aspect of Intellect Thought, to examine the business you are proposing, do a business plan, consult your accountant, consult people working in the field. You need to determine to the best of your ability whether the business is going to work. If, after all this investigation and analysis, it is determined that the business is viable but you are still having the negative Self Thoughts then perhaps the methods suggested by ACT should be used to disassociate from the fearful Self Thoughts and allow you to proceed with your dream.

And this approach should also be used with positive Self Thoughts as well. If for whatever reason you think, "I am the greatest. This business I am going to set up is going to boom and I will be a millionaire in three years", this Thought could be dangerous as well. The same three possibilities exist for this positive thought, either: true, false, or partially true/ false. Again use your rationality / Intellect to determine the business idea viability. Do not believe the first Self Thought that comes into your mind.

Next Page - Generating Positive Self Thought

Notes:

14. Many of the techniques mentioned here are covered in greater detail in the referenced book "The Happiness Trap" by Dr Russ Harris. See the Suggested Readings page for further details.

15. The reasons for this have been previously dealt with in the section on Negative Self Thoughts.

Top of Page

| Site Information | (C) |