• Mental rigidity is a transdiagnostic process that spans many mental health diagnoses
• Creating mental flexibility may be an important early intervention in successfully treating them.
• The need to suppress unpleasant thoughts is a driver of this process.
• Creating mental flexibility is challenging in that people must be trained to tolerate and process unpleasant thoughts.
• Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) have been shown to decrease mental rigidity.

Another form of suppression?

Mental rigidity is a variation of suppressing thoughts in that you will allow yourself only certain sets and types of thoughts and emotions. You don’t allow yourself to feel so happy or sad. Your emotional bandwidth is limited and can be compared to a bowling with rubber bumpers in the gutters. This may work to a large degree, but since you are constantly monitoring your thoughts, it is difficult to see and hear messages from others. You are unaware, which is at the core of abuse. Seeing and meeting only your needs causes one to behave in a manner that may hurt and damage others. Also, mental inflexibility is a common trait shared by many mental health diagnoses.¹

It gets worse. Rigid thinking around belief systems creates deep circuits in your brain (“stories”) that detach you not only from others but also the needs of society. These obsessive thought patterns seem “normal” to a given person. And when your brain is ruminating on these circuits, you have largely “crowded out” unpleasant repetitive thoughts. So, it is helpful for you, but not so much for others. Inevitably, there will be conflicts with those who have differing patterns of rigidity that are not subject to rational conversation. The perverse aspect of this is that the ensuing angry conflicts are powerful, further mask anxiety, and are addicting. Why would you want to give up the power of anger to feel anxious. Maybe it is your energy source that drives you to be “successful?”

Rigidity can revolve anything. Religion, politics, business, race, social class, personal opinions, noble ideology, and sports. The opinions can be small or global. They manifest as rhetoric (labeling), which completely covers up the real issues or specifics of who a person it.

                                                elit76_d/ AdobeStock

Reactance

It gets even darker. We will do almost anything to avoid or escape from the relentless barrage of negative thoughts. The science shows that thoughts and concepts become embedded in our brain similar to us defining any physical objective.² In other words, these fixed ideas become our life lens or world view. At some tipping point it hardens, and a phenomenon happens called “reactance.” This is a basic known fact in the marketing world.³ Facts never change one’s opinion. If they agree with your views, they are reinforced. However, when are not in agreement, you’ll reject them as invalid, and it strengthens your perspective even more. The more concrete your world view, the more definitive your actions will be to defend it.

The darkest aspect of it all is that many people feel the strength of their convictions (stories) to the point that they have the right, even responsibility to impose it on others. Hence, the outcome is extremely bad actions that occur both at a personal and world level.

We all have some aspect of this trait in that we feel that our perspective is the correct one, and we’ll freely be critical of those who don’t meet our “standards.” We may just think it or take varying degrees of action. Regardless of what you do, you have now lost awareness of the details of another person or situation. How can you act or react in a productive/ proactive manner?

Abuse

What about being raised in a dysfunctional or even abusive family? Your life lens is created from a hostile and dangerous environment. Going forward, you’ll constantly be in high alert similar to a feral cat. This environment creates a terribly destructive life view that also becomes stronger over time – unless you actively reprogram it.

The essence of abuse is not being aware of other’s needs. Rigid thinking takes unawareness to the highest level. It is often couched in seductive rhetoric. People in power understand the power of simple repetition and can program in anything they wish, regardless of whether it is logical or true.

The disease blocks treatment

How can this be solved? One of the most perverse aspects of the problem is that essentially all mental disorders are manifestations of chronic inflammation and other aspects of threat physiology. It this state your brain is inflamed, your neocortex (thinking regions) become less active, and it is challenging to open up your mind to new learning. Additionally, the rigidity also compromises awareness and curiosity.

Recent research has demonstrated that Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) are effective in increasing the connectivity between regions of the brain that define self. The term is the “Pattern Theory of Self.” Alterations that affect the dynamic interaction, are a factor in creating mental rigidity. The effects are manifested in many psychopathologies.

LoloStock/ Adobe Stock

By increasing the functional connectivity in regions connected with a sense of self and decrease the activity in interpreting the self’s relationship to the world, mental flexibility is increased. Indeed, MBIs are documented to more effective than many “gold standards” of psychological treatments.²

Chronic mental and physical illness and diseases are complex, and one type of intervention alone would not be expected to be a solution. However, MBI’s promise to be an entry point in breaking through the barrier of anger and rigidity to pursue a truly healing process. Many, if not most, chronic diseases are curable or at least can be halted. Research is beginning to offer real solutions.

Recap

Repetitive unpleasant thoughts (RUTs) are a driver of mental rigidity. It is a form of trying to control thoughts that is a common thread across many mental health diagnoses. Decreasing mental rigidity is a target for improving mental health interventions. It has been documented to be effective both clinically and with brain imaging. Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) are a category of interventions that are effective in improving mental flexibility; and are potentially an entry point for effective solutions.

References

1. Giommi F, et al. The (in)flexible self: Psychopathology, mindfulness, and neuroscience. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology (2023); 23:100381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100381
2. Feldman-Barrett, Lisa. How Emotions are Made, Mariner Books, 2017.
3. Berger Jonah. The Catalyst. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY. 2020.

The post Mental Rigidity – A Core Trait of Many Mental Health Diagnoses first appeared on Back in Control.

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• The “C”quence of healing is connection, confidence, and creativity.
• You must first become aware of and connect with all aspects of your past in order to move forward.
• Confidence originates from being deeply connected to it.
• It is the antithesis of pursuing self-esteem where your efforts are spent trying to outrun your past.
• Ironically, as you allow yourself to be with your unpleasant aspects of your past, self-esteem will grow.

In our efforts to feel better about the intentionally unpleasant feelings generated by our flight or fight physiology, we pursue self-esteem. It is mismatch of the powerful unconscious brain and your conscious part of it. You can’t win and the harder you try, the deeper you’ll sink into despair. It is also a universal problem. The opposite energy emanates from being with every aspect of your past instead of trying to outrun or mask it.

Going Deep

Consider a tree as a metaphor for your life. The soil represents your entire past and is the source for learning and future growth. There is one major root in any tree that is called the taproot. It grows straight down in search of water and nutrients. The trees with deepest ones are found in harsh dry environments. A tree may initially show little growth for a few years until the taproot is more mature. Roots grow relentlessly and will even grow through rock. The more developed and complex the root system, the better the chances for survival and growth.

All humans have some level of trauma. Our needs are not always immediately met even in the best of circumstance and adversity never stops coming at us. Many people have suffered severe, even extreme childhood trauma and there is plenty more to be had in adulthood. We don’t feel good about it and might feel ashamed of it. So, a lot of time and energy is spent on analyzing, fixing, covering up, whitewashing, or suppressing the past. Why wouldn’t we? Somehow, we feel that by spending a lot of time dealing with past, we’ll have a better life. The problem is that your attention is focused on the problems and not the solutions. It is where your brain will develop. It also requires a lot of energy that could be used in dealing with the present and thriving.

 Awareness – “C’ing”

The first step in problem solving is seeing ALL aspects of a given problem AND then having choices how to respond. To be creative, the “C/see” needs to be first. All of us know that certain phrases, behaviors, situations, people, etc. will elicit a fairly predictable and rapid reaction. You are reacting before you have even absorbed or comprehended the full scope of the problem. Consequently, you may make a flawed decision. Unfortunately, these learned reactions strengthen with age and repetition. The phrase, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is an accurate phrase. It is not that the dog cannot be taught. Embedded reactive patterns of thinking must be broken up first.

Unawareness

The first step in cultivating deeper awareness is recognizing when you are unaware. Awareness is the opposite of projecting your perception of the world onto others and situations.

Clues include feeling anxious or angry, being critical or judgmental, holding onto rigid belief systems in any domain, gossiping, complaining, “being right”, not fully listening to other’s opinions, intolerance, labeling others, and creating an identity based on ideals. All of us engage in some of these actions every day. It is inherent in being human and having language. Suppressing these traits is even worse, in that you’ll have no hope for change if you don’t know where you are starting from. The key is nurturing awareness of these actions, observing them, and then deciding what to do next.

Without knowing you are unaware, you’ll continue to reinforce your current life outlook (self-image/esteem) with “input” that supports it. What is more problematic is that if you receive conflicting data, you’ll reject it. This is an even more powerful force in strengthening your outlook and “life filter.” How can you really learn and change? Continually projecting your views eventually becomes tedious and you’ll become more “set in your ways.” It is the way your brain works. The marketing world calls this phenomenon, “reactance”, and they use it to their advantage.¹

What are you connecting to?

The basic awareness that must be cultivated is understanding what are you connecting to? By default, you are connected to your past programming. Much of it is unpleasant and  you may be reinforcing the same trajectory deeper into the abyss. Or you may be trying to outrun it by pursuing pleasure. But since you cannot outrun your subconscious mind, it can’t and doesn’t work. A common approach is to achieve, acquire, and accomplish and create a life that appears wonderful to others but is not based on solid ground. The same adrenalized  energy that takes you up the mountain of “success” may cause you to fall down the other side. For example, consider the problem of “imposter syndrome.”

The connection that is necessary for growth is allowing yourself to feel regardless of how uncomfortable it may be. “You have to feel to heal,” has been said in almost every domain of mental health. Being OK with uncomfortable emotions is at the core of healing. This has been around well before modern neuroscience. As you resist unpleasant thoughts and emotions, you are inadvertently placing more attention to them, and they will flourish. That is not what you want.

Are you connecting to you or your ideals? It is common to pursue better self-esteem, which consists of the “stories” in our minds that we create in order to understand our place in the world. Unfortunately, most of these arise from who everyone else thinks we should be and by the time we are old enough to make our own way, our life lens is embedded in our nervous system. Many of these stories are cognitive distortions and have little to do with the reality right in front of us. As they become more repetitive thought patterns, they occupy a lot of our consciousness and push out our capacity for enjoyment.

There are many ways to train yourself to tolerate difficult and intrusive thoughts and emotions. Learning these skills to process stress is much different than trying to avoid it, suppress it, or remaining a victim.

“Neuroshment”

Anytime you are anxious or frustrated, you are reacting to something in the past that you perceived as dangerous or was dangerous. It can be a mental or physical threat. Digging in and being with your past is the opposite of seeking self-esteem.

The “soil” of your past is the source of “neuroshment” (2) for future growth. The ongoing question is, “what can I learn?” Be with the past, increase your awareness of your history, reactions, and be present with it all. Watch your self-esteem flourish.

References

1. Berger, Jonah. The Catalyst. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 2020.
2. Word invented and conceptualised by Rita Salvador who broke free after suffering for over 50 years.

Recap

Confidence emerges from being solidly anchored in every aspect of your past. Much of it is uncomfortable, but it is what is there. Suppressing or running from your past can’t work and consumes a tremendous amount of life energy. You also cannot make good decisions without knowing where you are starting from. You may require professional help to assimilate your past. Also understand that the “stories” you create can anchor you in it. Immerse yourself and use tools to break free. BTW, if you can connect and be with the “bottom” there is nowhere to go but up.

Questions and considerations

1. Your ego consists of the “stories” you create to present a confident front to the world. Why wouldn’t you? Being vulnerable is often punished.
2. Consider that when you are upset, it is often about defending your ego.
3. Are you able to tolerate unpleasant feelings? Do you avoid them?
4. Emotional pain shares similar brain circuits as physical pain. Why would you want to hurt? But where is the escape from these thoughts?
5. First learn to be with the pain and learn the strategies to move forward.

The post Connection – The Antithesis of Pursuing Self-esteem first appeared on Back in Control.

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• A significant aspect of your healing journey is stimulating your brain to create a new set of circuits that are pleasurable.
• The sequence to change your brain is 1) awareness 2) separation (create some “space” 3) redirecting or reprogramming.
• None of this can happen without you being aware of where you are starting.
• Four levels of awareness are presented.

It is interesting how most of us want to become aware of the details of a product or situation before we feel we can make a good decision. It is only logical. Yet we tend to make quick reactive decisions about our own health or body. Part of this is because when we are trapped by anything, especially pain, we go into a reactive mode, which is irrational, hardwired, and powerful. Reactive patterns of thinking preclude awareness. The blood supply of your brain shifts from the neocortex (thinking centers) to the lower parts of the brain (survival) and your automatic circuits are in play. This scenario is the opposite of being aware.

With your brain “on fire” it requires specific skills to deenergize these circuits to allow the possibility of better awareness. Awareness also becomes one of the basic tools to calm down your fight or flight response. It is tricky in that somehow you have to penetrate back into your thinking brain and realize you are in this state of mind. You’ll eventually understand, with practice, that deep awareness is an incredibly powerful tool and platform for living your life.

Awareness is the beginning

Awareness can be defined as, “Being fully connected to the present moment.”

Why would awareness be brought up in the middle of a project dealing with chronic pain? First of all, no problem is solvable without understanding it. Chronic pain is incredibly complex and becoming deeply aware of the nature of the neurochemical nature of it is critical. But awareness is also a powerful tool in solving it. Awareness is the first step stimulating your brain to rewire (neuroplasticity). You can’t change something you can’t see.

Awareness is a powerful tool that will be critical throughout your Journey and eventually your life. There are four perspectives to consider:

• Environmental
• Emotional
• Storytelling/Judgmental
• Ingrained patterns

Environmental awareness involves placing your attention on a single sensation – taste, touch, sound, temperature, etc. When you switch your sensory input from racing thoughts to a different sensation, it dampens the stress hormone response. This is the basis of mindfulness – fully experiencing what you are doing in the moment.

I use an abbreviated version that I call “active meditation,” which is placing my attention on a specific sensory input for 5 to 10 seconds. It is simple and can be done multiple times per day. Eventually, it becomes somewhat automatic and a “go to” resource for calming yourself throughout the day.

MEDITATION

Meditation is an advanced environmental awareness that taps into emotions, judgments, and even your ingrained patterns. There are various methods and schools of thought to connect fully with the present moment. One basic technique is to focus only on your breath, becoming aware of as many aspects of your breathing as you can. As you do this, you’ll become immersed in the moment. Various distracting thoughts will enter your mind, but instead of becoming enmeshed with them, you simply watch them come, and then watch them leave. The goal is not to ignore these thoughts, but to learn how to not react to them. This is the process of detachment. After the momentary distraction, you gently pull yourself back to your breathing as quickly as possible.

When you meditate, you don’t try to slow down or control your racing thoughts. Instead, you “de-energize” them so that they have less control over you. As you develop the ability to stay in the present moment, the thoughts become less relevant and decrease—often dramatically. The key is to not try and edit, fix, or control them; that will only make them stronger.

Emotional awareness is more challenging. Allowing yourself to feel all of your emotions is a big step in healing; you can’t change what you can’t feel. However, you have to train yourself to tolerate feeling vulnerable, which most of us hate. We are programmed to be tough and take care of ourselves. Being vulnerable is not rewarded in the rest of the animal world and is often punished in the human experience.

One of my colleagues coined a phrase, “You have to feel to heal.” If you are intent on avoiding pain, you’ll become worn down. The key is to assimilate unpleasant feelings into your day-to-day life.

Judgment/ Storytelling is a major contributor to creating mental chaos in our lives. Dr. David Burns in his book Feeling Good¹ outlines 10 cognitive distortions that are a core part of our upbringing. Some of them include:

• Labeling yourself or others
• “Should” thinking – the essence of perfectionism
• Focusing on the negative
• Minimizing the positive
• Catastrophizing
• Emotional reasoning

You can’t fix these “errors” in thinking, since they are deeply embedded in our brains. But gaining awareness allows you to substitute more rational thought patterns. This is the essence of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).¹ Another approach, called Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT),² creates an awareness of these distortions and then you train yourself to just be with the emotions created by them. As your reactions to disruptive thoughts decreases, you are able to re-direct your attention and calm your nervous system on your terms.

It is also becoming increasingly clear to me why the concept of self-esteem is such an incredibly damaging idea. It represents an attempt to counteract the deeply unpleasant feelings generated by your unconscious brain’s need to keep you alive and it is gross mismatch. What is also apparent that much our “self-esteem” is based on various combinations of the above-mentioned distortions. The good news is that once you understand the nature of these distortions, there is nothing you have to do. They are not real. The sequence is becoming aware of them (not ignore), create some space with the tools that you connect with, and then just move on to what you want. You don’t have to change your life. You alter your reactions, and your life will change. It is remarkable how powerful this approach is in light of how little effort is required.

Ingrained thought patterns are the most problematic. Another term for this aspect of consciousness is “blind spots.” Recent neuroscience research has revealed that thoughts, concepts, and ideals become embedded in our brains and are just as real to you as the chair you are sitting in.^3, We are all programmed by our pasts – every second up this very moment. In fact, higher level mammal’s brain development is dependent on interactions with the environment. Primate experiments have shown that monkeys that are raised from birth in isolation cannot interact with others and are a threat to their offspring.⁴Case studies of people raised in severely deprived homes cannot learn to interact with others or feel appropriate emotions. The behaviors are irreversible. We are hardwired to survive but not to thrive.⁵

Your thoughts and beliefs are your version of reality. That is why people often engage in aggressive behavior when their belief systems are challenged. Or the opposite scenario may occur, which is becoming passive. There is a reason why passive aggressive behavior is so prevalent. Either way, challenges to your core life outlook are deeply disturbing. By definition, your belief system is your “filter” through which you interpret your environment and take the best actions to survive and hopefully thrive.

But while in pain, many of our behaviors are less than ideal. How could they be otherwise in the context of so much suffering and misery? But since these deep reactions have always been there from infancy, you can’t see them or understand the impact they are having on those close to you. Having a strong support system is an important part of your recovery from chronic pain because positive relationships have a calming effect. Unfortunately, many of us who experience chronic pain also drive people close to us away. Only awareness of your own patterns can grant you freedom from this cycle. By definition, you are not going to be able to see these patterns without outside observation. Seeing how others see you is challenging.

 Recap

Understanding and practicing awareness is the first step in reprogramming your brain. Your brain’s structure is physically altered. The sequence is as follows: awareness, separation, and re-programming.

Environmental awareness is the foundational first step. Spending time with “active meditation” both changes the sensory input from unpleasant and disruptive to neutral or pleasant. Regardless of where you are in your journey, practicing awareness will help calm you down.

When you are ready for the second level of emotional awareness, simply watch your emotions pass by. Then, pull yourself back into seeing, hearing, and feeling as quickly as possible. It is a little challenging, as emotions often evoke powerful reactions. Training yourself to be with these feelings instead of fighting them is a learned skill and may require some support from a professional.

The third level – judgment – is a lifetime journey. The key is to be persistent in not judging others or yourself. A good starting point is understanding than whenever you place a positive or negative judgment on someone else, you have simply projected your view of yourself onto the world. As you become aware of these cognitive distortions, you will be able to regain control of your life.

Remember that in the fourth level of ingrained patterns, it is impossible to see yourself through your own eyes. This is where resources such as psychologists, good friends, spouses, children, and seminars are helpful. The key is being open and willing to listen. You will also learn humility.

While it may feel like a monumental task, there no greater freedom than living in awareness. Once you are in control of the narrative, it is important to ask – how do you want to live the story of your life?

Questions and considerations

1. Developing a deep awareness is an important step in moving on. The opposite energy is suppression thoughts and emotions, which is not only counterproductive but has also been shown to cause damage to the memory center of your brain.
2. Challenge yourself to see yourself the way others might see you. You may not like it at first.
3. Then begin to look at the way others see themselves vs your perception of them.
4. There are infinite variations of awareness, and these four categories are only suggested to help organize your thinking about the topic.
5. Once your consciousness begins to kick into this mode, life becomes incredibly more interesting. At some point, we all become worn out with our versions of the world. Just sit back, listen, and enjoy.

References

1. Burns David. Feeling Good. Harper Collins, New York, NY, 2008.
2. Schwartz Dick. No Bad Parts. Sounds True. Boulder, CO, 2021.
3. Feldmann Barrett, Lisa. How Emotions are Made. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. New York, NY, 2017.
4. Blum Deborah. Love at Goon Park. Perseus Publishing. Philadelphia, PA, 2002.
5. Eagleman David. Penguin Random House, New York, NY, 2021.
6. Hulbert JC, et al. Inducing amnesia through systemic suppression. Nature Communications (2016). doi: 10.1038/ncomms1103

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