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Answers So Far...

Someone asked:

on November 22, 2024 2:36 pm

Hello !! I have a question about attention and the role of attention control in MCT. Is attention control an active skill that one develops over time—specifically, the ability to consciously direct and shift attention away from internal events and emotions? Or is it more of a passive process? Thanks !
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on November 28, 2024 8:33 pm
  
  Hi there, In MCT, we practice both passive and active forms of attention. We use the Attention Training Technique to actively shift attention and increase meta-awareness, while we use detached mindfulness to passively observe thoughts and feelings as they come and go. Meta-awareness is developed over time. Best of luck, Simon Moesgaard
Someone asked:

on September 18, 2024 12:17 pm

Hi, Thanks for providing answers regarding MCT! I have a question about how we should internally react to the thoughts that arise. Question: In the context of detached mindfulness and relating to thoughts in the right way, when we are burdened with worrying thoughts and obsessions, should we say to ourselves, “There is a thought about that,” or “There is a worry thought,” and then let it be and redirect our attention? Or should we do nothing internally with the thoughts, simply allowing them to come and go without any response at all—being aware that the thought is there but not engaging with it at all—and then redirect our attention to something else? Thanks!
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on October 17, 2024 1:48 pm
  
  Hi you, I’m glad that you found it useful. It’s a good question, which I get a lot. We want to engage as little as possible in prolonged thinking. In MCT, we practice ‘noticing’ or ‘observing’ trigger thoughts. Indeed, it can helpful to label the thinking activity, such as “rumination”, “worry”, or “there is a another trigger thougt”. However, you don’t want to replace one thinking process (worry) with another (monitoring) because then overthinking just changes clothes. Best of luck, Simon Moesgaard
Someone asked:

on July 15, 2024 11:17 am

Hi ! I am fascinated by the two modes in MCT—the object mode and the metacognitive mode. How does one acquire the skill of being in the metacognitive mode more, and is it possible for this mode to become one’s natural state, more so than the object mode, after getting better at it?
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on August 1, 2024 11:54 am
  
  Hi you, Thank you for that question. In metacognitive therapy, at least, we look at thoughts instead of from them, which allows us to engange or disengage from certain thinking patterns. Perhaps it's like bicycling, being aware that it is you who put effort into the bicycling, and not the bike itself. You can use a bike for a purpose, like moving yourself in a direction. In the same way, you can use your thinking to move yourself in a certain direction (to gain insight, solve a problem). The meta-mode is about stepping back and noticing what is going on in a particular moment. To be able to disrupt a certain kind of problematic thinking, like the bike that loses its power, when we stop moving our legs. You are in a meta-mode the moment you notice your thinking, and it’s not like you have to be there all the time to get better. I believe that getting better is more like, “The bike can go fast and slow, depending on what I do with it.”  Thanks for your question again, and good luck practicing ‘stepping back’, ‘noticing’, and ‘leaving some thoughts alone’.  
Someone asked:

on April 18, 2024 4:00 pm

Hello! I am trying to practice detached mindfulness but I keep running into the same problem. Which is, whenever I notice a thought, I tell myself to leave it alone. But that becomes a new obsession on its own. Like thoughtception. Because I tell myself to leave a thought alone. And the telling myself to leave it alone makes that I am engaging with the thought. Which causes more anxiety. What do I do? Because it very much feels like I have to resist not engaging and I don't think that is how detached mindfulness works right? So what am I doing wrong here? Thanks!
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on April 19, 2024 5:51 pm
  
  Hi you, Thanks for that question. I have answered the same question as yours previously. You can find it at Ask Me Anything!. Leaving a thought alone is about disengaging from any further processing and passively observe the thought in your mind. When you passively observe something, it is still there, and that's okay, as you have flexible control over your attention.
Someone asked:

on April 16, 2024 11:20 am

Goodday! I do have a question about mct. How do you get out of the pattern of thinking? Like. I keep thinking about the so called pink elephant. How do I remove myself from that grip? Thanks a bunch
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on April 16, 2024 3:09 pm
  
  Hi there, I guess you mention the pink elephant just to make an example, right? MCT is all about changing the way you relate to a thought, so it's not about mentally pushing it away or trying to remove it in other ways. You can do the following experiment to get the idea: First, you try not to think about a pink elephant for 10 seconds and see what happens. Then, for the next 10 seconds, you just passively observe the pink elephant in your mind and see what happens. In what condition did you spend more energy? Was it possible to passively observe it as an image in your mind without interacting with it? You can replace the pink elephant with any other thought. The experiment illustrates that thought-supression backfires, and that observing (in the form of detached mindfulness) is a different way of relating to a thought, separating the self from the thought. You are the observer, not the thought. Do you notice the pink elephant and leave it alone, or do you notice it and keep monitoring? Best regards, Simon Moesgaard
Someone asked:

on April 15, 2024 5:49 am

Hi Simon. Thanks for sharing all these amazing posts. I have the following question! I notice I can get stuck on the thought: "Oh I am having a thought. I need to leave this alone". But I keep monitoring if it's gone. Therefore, it's always there and it confirms my belief that I can't leave thoughts alone. It causes me anxiety and a lot of rumination trying to get rid of the feeling and thoughts. How can I manage this?
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on April 15, 2024 2:09 pm
  
  Hi you, First of all, thanks for your interest and your question. I will do my best to answer your question, which is a question that I get asked a lot in therapy. In the process of leaving thoughts alone (i.e. practicing detached mindfulness to thoughts), it frequently makes a person monitor whether he or she is doing "the right thing", at least to some extent. However, monitoring itself is a part of the CAS. We are threat-monitoring when we are in the mindset of avoiding things, such as physical threats but also perceived internal threats, such as specific bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts. Remember, the goal of MCT is not to get rid of thoughts but instead give the mind some time to self-regulate. So, monitoring whether something in your mind is present or not is actually relating to it as if it's a threat to you. 1) Would it be necessary to monitor something that is a passing event in your mind, just like a train going by. 2) Is the monitoring something you can control or pay less attention to? - As soon as you notice that you are monitoring, you are actually out of it - and you may turn your attention to the external world, your task at hand, etc. I hope that you found this answer useful for your further practice. Best regards, Simon Moesgaard
Someone asked:

on July 15, 2023 8:23 pm

Hi, I have a question about how detached mindfulness can be engaged in everyday situations, how does one gradually or habitually become non attached and non judgemental to thoughts/feelings/sensations etc? I've read part 7 of your blog post which is quite interesting, I'm guessing you'll be explaining more in part 8. I hope this question somebody else too. Thank you very much!
- Simon Moesgaard replied:
  
  on August 4, 2023 6:20 pm
  
  Thanks for that question! I am glad that you are the first one to ask me that question. I am going through how to practice detached mindfulness in part 8 (at least in a therapy session), which is going to be the last part of this series. I work on that part at the moment. The short answer is that you will gradually become more aware of the CAS process and you will identify it when you practice, a kind of meta-awareness. When you postpone further processing of thoughts, for example in the case of worry postponement, you just relate to your thoughts as events in your mind. When you judge a thought, you are already in 'the CAS mode', so you can also postpone the judgement process. I hope that it makes sense, and stay in tune for part 8. Best regards, Simon.