🟦🟪🟨 Relatable? Important tips below 👇 Thought defusion helps you get some distance from unhelpful thoughts and emotions. It’s perfect if you struggle with recurrent thoughts that impact your mood or anxiety state. It’s a technique used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In this therapy it is not the content of the thought that is considered the problem, but our tendency to get caught up in it and fuse with it by giving it our full attention in a way that blocks out other perspectives. This gives the thought huge power over our mood, emotions and behaviour. It can impact on what you say and do, how you interact with other people, and the choices you make for your life.  Thought defusion helps to take some of the power out of a thought by giving us a little distance. It’s a bit like the moment you take a mask off your face and hold it in your hand at arm’s length. You suddenly get to see the mask in its entirety, and no longer have to see the world through that template. There are lots of different techniques to try… 1. The ‘Just noticing’ technique - Say to yourself, “I notice I am having the thought that…” before you say the thought out loud. This acknowledges that it is indeed a thought, and not a fact. 2. ‘Thanking the mind’ technique - respond to your mind with, “thank you for this idea/ feedback/suggestion.” Some people find it helpful to do this in a sarcastic way, as if you are not taking those thoughts too seriously, as the goal is to change our relationship with them, rather than block them out. 3. Write the thoughts down. For example, if you are trying to tackle high self-criticism, whenever you notice a self-critical thought, write it down on a post-it. Make sure you title that note with the type of bias you recognise it to be. For example, “Self-critical thought: I am such a ….” Remember that the goal is not to stop having the thoughts or block them out, but to ensure that they are not in the driving seat. 👉More on this in my million copy bestselling book - Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? (Currently -50% see link in bio). Filled with insights from therapy about how to deal with real life problems. Available in over 40 languages