{"id":581,"date":"2014-09-01T03:55:11","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T03:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/?p=581"},"modified":"2014-09-01T03:55:11","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T03:55:11","slug":"whatever-you-do-%e2%80%93-don%e2%80%99t-trust-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"Whatever you do \u2013 don\u2019t trust it!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the last entry, I wrote about the difference between cognitive therapy and mindfulness, and now I want to clarify the similarities between the two approaches. In both cognitive therapy and mindfulness we bring awareness to what is happening in our minds. The essence of both cognitive therapy and mindfulness is this: <em>you cannot trust your mind.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The mind will tell you all kinds of stories \u2013 many of them scary or negative and one of the main things we can do in order to stay well (i.e., not become anxious or depressed) is <em>not<\/em> to trust the mind because the mind is basically a storyteller with a preference for negative or frightening stories.<\/p>\n<p>Most people treat their thoughts like they\u2019re true. \u201cIf I think I\u2019m bad then I must be bad\u201d \u201cIf I feel defective\/unworthy\/guilty\/fat\/stupid \u2026.I must be that\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wrong!<\/p>\n<p>The mind \u2013 like the heart \u2013 is build to be busy and it thinks and thinks and thinks throughout your life. However that also means that sometimes the mind will think random, ridiculous stuff that has no or little foundation in reality.<\/p>\n<p>So my advice is this: don\u2019t trust the mind.<\/p>\n<p>Treat the mind like it\u2019s a five-year-old that babbles non-stop and some of what it says is sensible, interesting and helpful and some of what it says is total nonsense and very unhelpful if you believe it.<\/p>\n<p>So don\u2019t trust it but also don\u2019t become aggressive or angry with it \u2013 it\u2019s only doing what it\u2019s build to do. It\u2019s best to view the mind with the same loving, overbearing and slightly amused feeling that you would view a small child: sweet, funny, entertaining and occasionally annoying but not to be taken seriously most of the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the last entry, I wrote about the difference between cognitive therapy and mindfulness, and now I want to clarify the similarities between the two approaches. In both cognitive therapy and mindfulness we bring awareness to what is happening in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/?p=581\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-therapy-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinicalpsychology.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}