Stress Exercise: Thought Diffusion

This practice is borrowed from acceptance and commitment therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, and Wilson, 1999), and is very effective at transforming emotional distress.

When we are burdened by distressing thoughts, usually they repeat in a way that can be very painful, confusing, or stressful, causing us to doubt our present reality. If we are worried, fearful, or stressed about something, we tend to latch onto those thoughts, like a fish attracted to a fishing lure. This can lead to us being dragged around by our negative thoughts, unable to get free from thinking about what hurts us. Fortunately, when we practice thought diffusion, we can gain control of our anxious and uneasy feelings. We use thought diffusion when we suffer from ruminating thoughts about things we regret in the past, or issues we’re worrying about in the future; but we can also use this practice to simplify our thought processes altogether, settling our mind so we can think of one thing at a time instead of getting swirled up in everything at once. 
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I find this exercise to be especially helpful at night when I am kept awake by regrets, anxiety, general over-analyzing, or obsessive thoughts. I find it’s easiest to visualize the images when my eyes are closed and my body is still, but I’ve also done this practice with my eyes open, around other people, without anyone even realizing! I would recommend practicing at night as you review your day, or first thing in the morning if you wake up with many thoughts at once. 

Thought diffusion requires you to use your imagination. The goal of this practice is to visualize your thoughts (either as pictures or words) gently rising out of you. Acknowledge what the thought is, and then gently guide it away from you. There are many ways to be creative with thought diffusion, and I think this is what’s appealing about it to me. Depending on the subject of our worries, we can visualize different images that best help relieve our specific feelings.

Some examples of thought diffusion are:

• Imagine you’re sitting at a river. Visualize your thoughts as beautiful, colorful leaves on a tree above you. Watch them gently fall onto the surface of the river. Allow your troubling thoughts to float away from you, twirling in the current of the water. 
• See your thoughts written in the sand on the beach, and exhale as you imagine the ocean waves washing them away. If the thoughts continue to pester you, be patient and visualize the waves washing over the words again and again until the sand is smooth. 
• Picture yourself in a vibrant field of flowers, and gaze up to watch your thoughts drift by in the clouds. Allow the clouds to take the shape of your thought, and then use your imagination to reshape the clouds into a fluffy, white happier versions of the same thought. 
• Visualize your thoughts lifting gently out of your head and watch them fall directly into a comforting fire (fireplace/campfire/etc) in front of you. Observe your thoughts slowly charring at the edges, dancing slightly as they catch fire and slowly turn to ash.

Some thoughts are very sticky, and they cling to us as we try to direct them away; so we can add another element to our practice in which to store these thoughts until they are more settled (compartmentalizing them). Then we can successfully release them when we don’t feel so reactive to them.

Personal Example of Thought Diffusion

The other night, as I lay in bed, I couldn’t sleep. I was being bombarded with feelings of anxiety, guilt, shame, fear, and disgust. I tried to relax, but my thoughts were churning so intensely inside, I couldn’t feel comfortable. Trying to breathe evenly, I closed my eyes and imagined my thoughts rising out of me, traveling in an arch as they neatly piled into a standard cardboard box to the right of me. I continued to place my negative judgments of my past into the cardboard box until I felt a stillness inside. When any new thought would pop into my mind, disrupting my stillness, I would imagine the disruption gliding in and settling atop the other contained feelings. Doing nothing but calming sorting my feelings, I practiced mindful breathing to keep me grounded and calm. If the same thoughts I already placed in the box shoved their way back into my consciousness, I wouldn’t react, I’d refocus my concentration, and gently guide the thought back to its place in the box until I felt able to enjoy stillness once again. After I felt rather still and serene, free from all distress for a few moments, I visualized closing the box. Then I concentrated on transforming the contents of the box. Since my anxious feelings were about past addictive behaviors, I practiced kindness and compassion as I reminded myself that our experiences make us who we are today. My experiences with suffering and dark times are what qualifies me to help understand and support others through similar struggles. Within my closed box, I envisioned my negative worries and judgments compacting, slowly getting smaller and denser. I imagined these overwhelmingly huge feelings shrinking down into a heavy block of concrete, symbolizing how my past experiences, no matter how painful, help form the foundation for my success today. To complete my thought diffusion, I visualized picking the concrete block up out of my box, and placing it in a hole in a strong, fortified castle that suddenly surrounded me. Not only had I reduced my distress, but I had transformed it into a building block in my personal fortress of greatness. I continued to breathe deeply and evenly, and I could enjoy a more peaceful and composed state.

Remember to practice radical acceptance as you practice this exercise to avoid adding critical thoughts to the pile of feelings you’re sorting through. Allow yourself to relax, simply watching your thoughts come and go, and direct the negative ones to disappear without getting hooked on them. Be creative with your approach, and enjoy!

Radical Acceptance