Human minds are nearly always busy. When we’re awake, our minds are busily generating thoughts about all sorts of things. Even during certain stages of sleep (particularly REM sleep), our minds are quite busy, dreaming, processing the day’s activities, consolidating memories, and so on. Incessant mental activity can be useful at times and maddening at other times. Worry thoughts can generate unwanted anxiety; rumination about the past can amplify negative emotions, and persistent negative thoughts about oneself, the world, and the future can contribute to depression. It would seem like one way to deal with this situation is to try to simply get rid of our thoughts. It turns out, however, that the more we try to get rid of our thoughts, the worse they become. Strategies to change thoughts can be very effective, but it’s impossible to change all troubling thoughts. One of the newer skills in DBT is designed to help people find a different way to deal with thoughts: Mindfulness of Current Thought (It should be noted that this skill is also consistent with strategies widely used in other mindfulness/acceptance based treatments, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).
Mindfulness of Current Thought involves stepping back and seeing your thoughts for what they really are. You can think of thoughts as waves in your mind (“Mind Waves,” Suzuki, 1970). If you ever have a chance to sit and watch the water on a lake, you’ll notice that there are almost always ripples. Every once in a while, the wind is perfectly calm, and the lake seems smooth as glass. But, even so, there is always some movement. At the edges, the water gently moves against the shore even when it seems perfectly calm toward the middle of the lake. Our minds are a lot like large bodies of water. There is almost always some movement. Sometimes, it’s turbulent, and at other times, it’s smooth and gentle. If you try to stop a wave, you generally just get wet. If you build a dam, the waves will keep pushing at it, or the water will rise and go somewhere else, creating streams made up entirely of those waves that got blocked. Similarly, it’s difficult to stop thoughts for any period of time. Sometimes, it’s best to simply watch the thoughts/waves. Be aware of them. Let them come and go. Remember that you might need to take them into account if you’re planning to go for a swim or a paddle.
Here’s another way to think about thoughts: Even though thoughts feel extremely powerful, sometimes painful, and sometimes joyous, thoughts are nothing but symbols for reality. It may seem sometimes like thoughts are reality, but it’s almost like they’re people in a Halloween party masquerading around with costumes on. When we get stuck to our thoughts or take them as literal truth, we can end up walking down a very dangerous path. So, the idea here is to unglue yourself from your thoughts. See them for what they are. If they are effective, go with them, but when they are ineffective, let them go their own way. One of the first ways to practice mindfulness of current thought is to catch a thought going through your mind and simply label it as a thought. You might say to yourself, “This is a thought, not a fact.” Another way to practice is to label the type of thinking you’re doing. When you catch yourself worrying, you might label your thoughts, “worry thoughts.” Try to separate fact from fiction by labelling the thoughts that go through your mind, such as worry thoughts, rumination, assumptions, judgments, inferences, guesses, self-denigrating thoughts, etc. For additional suggestions, I highly recommend the DBT Skills Training Manual, 2nd Edition (Linehan, 2015) and Get Out of Your Mind and into Your Life, by Dr. Steven C. Hayes. – Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R.Psych.