Tag Archives: Illusion of Control

接受不确定性

Anxiety Disorder, Obsession & Compulsion, , ,

生活中很多人不太能接受“不确定性”（uncertainty），比如担心孩子老公的安全，担心睡不着，担心明天工作报告的表现等。很多人用担心与忧虑来应付不确定性，感觉上担心的事的不确定性在你担心后就变得比较能够预测，比较可以确定，这往往导致你继续担心与忧虑。

但是事实上，你的担心与忧虑，真的能使事情更确定更能预测吗？

挑战对不确定性的接受程度

  • 生活所有事都能肯定确定吗？有可能吗？
  • 对“确定性”的需要其实有多重要呢？有什么好处与坏处？
  • 你是否常常因为事情的不确定性而总是预测坏事会发生？这样合理吗？坏事以外的事发生的可能性不大吗？
  • 你所预测的事，发生的机率有多高呢？如果发生的机率很低，这样一直担心下去对你好吗？生活会快乐吗？
  • 你能尝试接受“不确定性”吗？能怎样做到船到桥头自然直的态度呢？
  • 问问你周围的人，他们怎么接受“不确定性”呢？

接受与警觉

当你无法忍受“不确定性”时，你都把专注力放在“未来”。现在就要学习如何活在当下，对当下警觉注意，并接受这个“不确定性” －三个步骤：

  • 警觉：清楚自己目前的思维与感受。用呼吸的步伐来让自己感受当下。当你总是想要确定性时，它给你带来了什么感受或问题？
  • 放手：放弃这个对确定性的需要，告诉自己“这不过是个需要确定性的想法，我可以放手让它走”
  • 不批判性：让想法在脑海里走过，不要批判它，或尝试改变它。然后把注意力放回当下，体验现在，注意你周围的声音，身体的感觉，或你的呼吸，或专注于你现在需要做的事。

 

N.B. 在我看来，除了广泛性焦虑症(generalised anxiety disorder, GAD)，不能接受“不确定性”（就是凡事都要百分百确定，不能冒一点险）也是强迫症(obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD)的一个明显特征，只是除了在脑中担心、不断思考，强迫症患者会对不确定性做出（反复的）行为反应。

新的一年，不妨把这当成今年的目标之一，学习与练习“接受不确定性”，活得灵活自在些！

You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Introducing “Speed: Facing our Addiction to Fast & Faster & Overcoming our Fear of Slowing down”

Review - books movies series, Treatment Approaches, , ,
Stephanie Brown Phd
By Stephanie Brown PhD.

I picked this book from the Big Bad Wolf for RM8 (under US$2), thinking that this is really something people nowadays are going to need. The content can be slightly outdated (as compared to the rapid advancement of the technology world these days), but definitely not the messages it is trying to bring.

For the past few decades, we’ve all been told to be efficient, to keep moving, to make full use of all our time, to be in control, to have more and more, to keep in touch every waking hours, not to stop, not to slow down, not to be left behind…

We keep adding activities into our schedules, and never take any out, thinking that as long as somehow adjusting them around, we will manage it all… We have the constant need to do something, to check the phone, to go on Facebook, to work harder, to get more, constant feeling of “never enough”. We think we are communicating better with the technology advancement, but we are no longer looking at each other and talking to each other when we dine together…

… …

The style of writing can be a bit boring to me, but repetition is needed to help people to face their fear of slowing down and to learn to live a more mindful and meaningful life.

So, whether or not you think you are so addicted to speed (or gadgets or something similar or related), take a look!

Can you control your thoughts and feelings?

Basic & General, Treatment Approaches, , , , ,

Many of the self-help books out there teach people how to change their thoughts, physical sensations, feelings etc in order to feel better (including traditional CBT which targets automatic negative thoughts), if you’re one of those who have tried many of these techniques, how workable do you think they are? Do you think you really have so much control over your thoughts and feelings?

Try these:

(1) Try to recall something happened in the past week, anything — a dinner you had, a movie you went, a talk etc. [continue when you’ve got one] Now try to remove it completely from your memory, get rid of it so you will never think about it again in your life… Can you do it?

(2) Now, do not think about chocolate. As you read this, do not think about how a chocolate tastes, smells; do not think about its colour and texture; do not imagine how it feels when it melts in your mouth and how it feels when your tongue and teeth contact with it. Is it possible? Try again with honey maybe?

(3) Think about past experiences, whether when you have to give a public talks and feel very nervous; when a loved ones passes away and you feel really depressed; when your results doesn’t come out as good as expected and you feel disappointed etc etc. You hope you aren’t that nervous, depressed, disappointed, you try to get rid of these negative emotions as how they’re labelled, was the attempt successful? Did trying to control your emotions make it even stronger, ironically? So you’re more nervous trying not to be nervous?

So why ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)? Because in ACT, we understand in life negative emotions, thoughts, experience, sensations are all just as likely to happen as the positive ones, they are all part of our life, they are what make our lives meaningful, educational and contented. So in ACT, people learn to accept them, to live with them, instead of struggling with them, challenging them, changing them, getting rid of them.