In Our Minds

"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts". Psalm 139: 23

Being in the here-and-now, connected to our true self - it's something which sounds wonderful yet impossible for many. Our intellect is a gift, but things go awry.

Why?

Lock in, because this is going to be a bit of a long one.

The Problem Solving Mind

In an earlier post, I wrote about the mind as a problem-solving work of art. We can analyze the past, think about what went wrong, and consider what should be done differently. We can think about the future, and all the different possibilities, and all the possible consequences.

This kind of thought is made possible by our human intellect, which can take us out of the present. We can consider the past, the future, or an alternative reality. No other species can do that, as far as we are able to study at this time. There can be what looks like planfulness, but it isn't at the level we have, where we can picture scenarios in detail in our mind.

The Symbolic Animal

We are the species which has the capacity for symbolic thought, an idea expanded on and promoted by philosopher Ernst Cassirer in his 1944 book Essay on Man. While animals perceive their world by sensory perception and act on instinct, humans are able to go beyond this. Animals sense how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, or sounds and that's it. They can't do something like imagine it to be a different color, or understand that it has thoughts.

On the other hand, we humans can create images in our minds which are not just a replica of something concrete we have seen. We can look at a blue chair and imagine it if it was green. We can look at the furniture around our room and picture in in different places. We can understand that our family member might have thoughts about us moving all the furniture and we can even imagine what those thoughts might be.

For example, if I say "imagine Egypt" you may have a memory of being in Egypt or a vision of picture from a book that comes to mind. But you could also create a scene of "Egypt" in your mind which is not real. Perhaps there are pyramids or an outdoor market - something you associate with Egypt because you have learned about it. But you can create that image without having ever seen Egypt in real life or pictures.

This goes hand in hand with our capacity for language. "E-G-Y-P-T" is five line drawings, which we term letters. When they are spaced closely together (EGYPT) it triggers the idea of a country in your head. That is provided you can read in this language I am writing in. "مصر بلد" will also do the same thing for some people, but you may not know Arabic and therefore it doesn't trigger any thought of Egypt.

As a thought exercise, when you saw that Arabic writing, what did you think of?

Sacramental Life

The Church is full of symbolism. Think of the use of a lamb for the depiction of Christ or a dove for the Holy Spirit. Those images directly call to mind the different persons of the Trinity. They also communicate theology through our associations. We understand that Jesus wasn't actually an animal, but associate Him with gentleness and sacrifice. Humans with our ability for symbolic thought can do this.

This symbolic thought is essential to understanding the life of the sacramental life of the Church. Pope Benedict XVI often spoke about humanity’s “symbolic capacity” as essential for faith and liturgy. Take the Eucharist as an example. We have to be able to think in this abstract manner to be able to view the "accidents" (outward appearances) of the host and wine but understand its "substance" (true nature) as the Body and Blood of Christ.

Mental Storytelling

So with this capacity for imagination and language, our intellect has made us able to grasp our faith and become creators of whole worlds in our minds. It sounds beautiful.

But what if the world you are creating in your mind is the vision of your boss yelling at you tomorrow?

She said something curtly on Friday and now it's Sunday night, and you have been telling yourself stories in your head all weekend. Stories about what she was thinking. Stories about what she meant. Stories about how the conversation will go with her at your work tomorrow morning. Stories about you being fired...being unable to pay your bills...

On Monday she tells you her father had gone to the emergency room on Friday. She apologizes for her curtness in the meeting.

None of what you imagined over the weekend was real. But the "reality" that you were imagining had a real impact on your emotions, your blood pressure, and your friend that you snapped at (oops).

The fact is that humans are frequently reacting or responding to things which are not real because of our ability to think abstractly., We assign meaning to people's actions or even natural events. We pretend that we can read others' minds and know their thoughts and intentions. We even, maybe often, assume the thoughts and intentions of God.

Defusion

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy proposes a radically different way to navigate thoughts. It doesn't ask you to challenge the thoughts as false or call them distortions. It doesn't ask you to reframe them into positive thinking. It doesn't encourage you to do anything with them at all, in fact. The whole goal is to let them be, by way of a skill called defusion.

Thoughts, especially scary thoughts, can pull us in and demand our attention. But the fact of the matter is that thoughts are just stories in our minds. We can observe behaviors, such as a person not saying 'hi' to us when we say 'hi' to them. Although note how if that happened to you, you might describe the behavior as "they ignored me" - implying intention and a whole host of others things you didn't actually observe. It would be accurate in that moment to say:

• I notice when I said "hi" that they looked in my direction but didn't say anything.

• I notice that I am having the thought, "They ignored me."

• I notice that I am having a flush in my face.

• I notice that I having a feeling of embarrassment.

That is defusion. It lets the thoughts be (and the feelings), and just names them without judgement. It creates a space between you - the one doing the observing - and the events and feelings and thoughts around and in you. It gives space for discernment and encourages observation over assumption.

It isn't easy. But with practice it becomes a skill which helps us unblend or unhook from the thoughts we have. It helps center us in the storm, so that we can locate the thoughts as separate from ourselves, and maybe be better able to navigate in that moment.

Till next time, maybe try that: if you have a thought about something, say to yourself, "I'm having the thought that [insert thought here]." Practice making that as a neutral observation. No further analysis. See what you notice.