Mindful Somatic Awareness for Anxiety Relief by Michele L. Blume

Author:Michele L. Blume
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2020-09-10T22:04:10+00:00

Unconscious Coupling and Conscious Uncoupling

When it comes to the thought patterns and core beliefs associated with your anxiety, the ultimate goal is to deactivate them. Further, we want to wire in new cognitive processes that enable open-­mindedness to the countless possible ways of experiencing reality as it unfolds in each moment. But because thinking is a mind-body phenomenon, we know that if we use only our logic and reason to do this, we won’t be able to make lasting change in our cognitive patterns; we will inevitably lapse into old ways of thinking. In order to change our negative thoughts and core beliefs, we need to understand their connection to our body and target them there, too. This will create lasting change in the way your mind-body sees, thinks about, and experiences reality. Let’s return to the phenomenon of over-coupling to help us with this.

To recap, over-coupling occurs when different fragments (such as sensory stimuli, physiological reactions, behaviors, thoughts, and emotions) of an overwhelming or frightening experience bind tightly together and become unconsciously associated with one another. During this process, you construct a narrative that attempts to make sense of and give meaning to what happened. Contained within this narrative are certain thought patterns and core beliefs about yourself, others, and the world. This narrative is then archived in your implicit memory and referenced (much like a guidebook) in the future to help you navigate what your mind-body perceives as similar situations. These narratives carry the thought patterns and core beliefs associated with your fear and anxiety.

As you can see, over-coupling demonstrates how the cognitive processes associated with your anxiety live in your mind and body. Our goal, then, is to use Mindful Somatic Awareness to identify the implicit cognitive processes connected to your anxiety and their dynamic interplay with your physiology. We also want to uncouple or loosen the over-coupled fragments of your fear response. When the over-coupled fragments of your fear response begin to break apart, it creates space for new information to flow in and inform your felt-sense experience and, therefore, your perception. Uncoupling also has the effect of increasing the time you have to respond in moments when your anxiety has been triggered. That is, it reduces your reactivity, and when you are less reactive, you have more time to identify what you are feeling and thinking and employ mindful action.

Remember, the over-coupled fragments are bound together so tightly with fear that, when triggered, they initiate a reactive response that happens so quickly you don’t always realize it. This reactivity inhibits adequate left hemisphere participation in your experience, so your behavioral response is not well integrated with reasoned thinking. Without a logical assessment of the situation or circumstance, mindful action is not possible. Furthermore, when your adaptive response is reactive and driven by your right hemisphere, you remain stuck in the fear-based narrative related to your over-coupling.

Keep in mind, your reactive response stems largely from over-coupling, which carries with it your fear-based narrative. When operating under the influence of your fear-based narrative, your perception of reality will reflect that.

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