# cbt and mindfulness



## spb123 (Dec 15, 2003)

I've seen these two approaches discussed frequently on this board and am wondering how they can be coincided. It seems that cbt is about challenging your thoughts while mindfulness is simply being aware and detaching from them. Any thoughts?


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## Maslow (Dec 24, 2003)

spb123 said:


> I've seen these two approaches discussed frequently on this board and am wondering how they can be coincided. It seems that cbt is about challenging your thoughts while mindfulness is simply being aware and detaching from them. Any thoughts?


Good question. With CBT, you're dealing with the meaning of your maladaptive thoughts. For example, if you're going to a party and you have the cognition that people aren't going to like you, you can counter those negative thoughts with "well, they liked me at the last party I went to" or "what difference does it make if they don't like me." That's all well and good, but you still may suffer from anxiety because the fear of being judged has become ingrained into your subconscious. And those negative thoughts may persist.

Mindfulness works best when you have dealt with and understand your problems, which can be accomplished using CBT techniques. Understanding is part of Vipassana or insight meditation, which is mindful meditation. Once you understand your problems, there's no reason left to process them so they can simply be observed. When a maladaptive thought appears, simply observe it as if it was a soap bubble floating into the air and popping after a few moments. In fact, that's what you do with all conscious thoughts when practicing mindfulness -- simply observe them and watch them fade away. If you feel some anxiety, simply observe that, also. Don't try to fight it. Instead, treat it as an interesting sensation.


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## RubyTuesday (Aug 3, 2007)

My theory is that CBT is for when a person is less emotionally on edge, and Mindfulness is for when a person is. THat CBT is really kind of just the application of common sense changing your thoughts. Mindfulness is more about getting to a point of accepting all your emotions and thoughts enough to then be able to choose among these better.

CBT, I think, works for when a person is less ambivalent and doesn't need to acqure as much awareness (ownership) over their emotions. There is also a better degree of emotional control, I believe, with people for whom CBT is effective and their thoughts and emotions are less unconscious.

For people for whom certain thoughts/feelings are more reactive and unconscious, I believe mindfulness helps them become aware (own) the range of feelings and thoughts that they have, so that they can then BELIEVE the new thoughts (in CBT, for example) that they would like to have.

Anyhow, that is just my theory about it.


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