Yeah, one might think I’m going against the grain, recommending something that more experienced meditators warn against. On the other hand (and imho), we could take it as a warning against ordinary distractedness and ordinary unmindful involvement in thoughts. Focusing intentionally on one specific mental motion is very different.
Of course, that’s for the goal of the book, which is about mindfulness meditation, which involves stabilizing your attention and strengthening your peripheral awareness.
The goal of mindfulness might be interpreted in different ways (and I haven’t read that book yet), but ender the interpretation of defusion, I think there’s nothing particularly harmful about the track-back exercise. It is possible that it can get you caught up in history and therefore fused with the thoughts, but it is also possible that looking at the history helps put thoughts at a little distance.
For example, someone using mindfulness to deal with cigarette cravings (trying to quit) is supposed to pay mindful attention to the craving, and “ride the wave” until the craving is over. It is possible that tracking back to what gave rise to the craving helps contextualize it and thus put it at a remove (“I was stressed just now, and then I started having the craving”). It is also possible that it takes you away from moment-to-moment presence, and the next thing you know, you find yourself reaching for a cigarette. I don’t know for sure.
If your goal is related to debiasing, though, I think it’s a pretty good form of mindfulness: the question “why did I have that thought?” is closely related to epistemic hygiene. “Why am I thinking this plan is bad? Ah, I started out being annoyed at Ellen for her bad driving, and then she mentioned this plan. But, her driving is unrelated to this plan...”
Yeah, one might think I’m going against the grain, recommending something that more experienced meditators warn against. On the other hand (and imho), we could take it as a warning against ordinary distractedness and ordinary unmindful involvement in thoughts. Focusing intentionally on one specific mental motion is very different.
The goal of mindfulness might be interpreted in different ways (and I haven’t read that book yet), but ender the interpretation of defusion, I think there’s nothing particularly harmful about the track-back exercise. It is possible that it can get you caught up in history and therefore fused with the thoughts, but it is also possible that looking at the history helps put thoughts at a little distance.
For example, someone using mindfulness to deal with cigarette cravings (trying to quit) is supposed to pay mindful attention to the craving, and “ride the wave” until the craving is over. It is possible that tracking back to what gave rise to the craving helps contextualize it and thus put it at a remove (“I was stressed just now, and then I started having the craving”). It is also possible that it takes you away from moment-to-moment presence, and the next thing you know, you find yourself reaching for a cigarette. I don’t know for sure.
If your goal is related to debiasing, though, I think it’s a pretty good form of mindfulness: the question “why did I have that thought?” is closely related to epistemic hygiene. “Why am I thinking this plan is bad? Ah, I started out being annoyed at Ellen for her bad driving, and then she mentioned this plan. But, her driving is unrelated to this plan...”