For instance, when it comes to anxiety, the idea is that by changing what you think about your anxious thoughts, you\u2019ll start to feel calmer.<\/p>\n
How effective is meta-cognitive therapy?<\/strong><\/h2>\nAlthough meta-cognitive therapy is far less well-known than CBT, it\u2019s already gathered an impressive amount of research support.<\/p>\n
For instance, for a paper published in 2021, psychologists in Norway collaborated with Prof Adrian Wells<\/a> \u2013 the British psychologist who developed meta-cognitive therapy \u2013 to follow the long-term outcomes of dozens of patients with generalised anxiety disorder who had either participated in traditional CBT or meta-cognitive therapy.<\/p>\nThe patients who underwent meta-cognitive therapy had already shown superior improvements<\/a> compared with those who did CBT, both at the time they finished treatment and two years later.<\/p>\nFor the 2021 paper, the researchers caught up with most of the same patients nine years later \u2013 and the meta-cognitive group again recovered better from anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\nRead more:<\/strong><\/p>\n- Rise of the therapy chatbots: Should you trust an AI with your mental health?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Phone call anxiety: Simple ways to overcome your telephobia, according to psychology<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
How to use <\/strong>meta-cognitive therapy to relieve anxiety<\/strong><\/h2>\nMeta-cognitive therapists make a distinction between the positive thoughts you have about your anxiety-related thoughts and the negative thoughts you have about them.<\/p>\n
The idea of having positive thoughts about anxious thoughts might sound like an oxymoron. But in fact many people who experience persistent anxiety have \u2018positive\u2019 thoughts about their worries and fears, like \u201cas long as I spend enough time worrying about the work presentation, it will help stop anything really bad from happening\u201d or \u201cmy worries about the presentation will help me to prepare for it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, these kinds of thoughts can trap you in a worry cycle.<\/p>\n
If you recognise the \u2018positive\u2019 type of thinking about anxiety, you can take some self-help steps to try to challenge yourself. For instance, you could spend a little time questioning these beliefs you have about worrisome thoughts.<\/p>\n
Will time spent fretting about bad outcomes really lower the probability of those bad outcomes happening? Of course not \u2013 for instance, worrying about having a car accident or your plane crashing will not keep you safe.<\/p>\n
Worrying about your work presentation being a disaster also won\u2019t prevent it from being a disaster (only knuckling down to some serious prep will do that).<\/p>\n
Starting gently at first, you could even try engaging in some little experiments \u2013\u00a0seeing what happens if you let yourself stop worrying about upcoming events. Over time you\u2019ll hopefully come to see that worrying by itself doesn\u2019t protect you.<\/p>\n
![\""Woman\"]( "\\"\"Woman\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Separating your thoughts and how you feel about them is a key component of meta-cognition. \u00a9 Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nWhat about the negative thoughts that people have about their anxious thoughts? These include things like \u201cI can\u2019t stop my fearful thoughts\u201d; \u201cI can\u2019t stop myself from worrying\u201d; and \u201cmy mind won\u2019t stop racing \u2013\u00a0I must be going mad\u201d.<\/p>\n
If you recognise these thinking about your anxious thoughts, again there are a few basic self-help steps you could try out.<\/p>\n
Bear in mind that being scared of your anxious thoughts and trying to shut them down is only likely to make them worse \u2013\u00a0you\u2019re effectively training your mind to be scared of them, which will only make them stickier.<\/p>\n
Meta-cognitive therapists would encourage you to try to detach yourself from your worrisome thoughts rather than fighting them.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n- The best science-backed books to help you manage anxiety in 2023<\/a><\/li>\n
- Why do I get anxious thoughts late at night? A scientist explains<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Dr Pia Callesen<\/a>, who is a leading researcher on meta-cognitive therapy, proposes a lovely metaphor \u2013 imagine your anxious thoughts as being like trains arriving at a railway station. Rather than climbing on board, simply let them arrive and then move on.<\/p>\nI\u2019ve given just a flavour of the kind of techniques used in meta-cognitive therapy, but there are many more. Lying beneath them all is an empowering principle, which is that your mind has evolved to deal with difficult emotions. You really just need to get out of its way.<\/p>\n
Your mind is trying to actively intervene in your anxious thoughts \u2013 thinking you need to have them, or that you need to control or shut them down \u2013 so much that you cause yourself unnecessary problems.<\/p>\n
You risk trapping yourself in cycles of worry about worry or fear about fear.<\/p>\n
So, try if you can to recognise that a degree of worry and trepidation is normal and to not become too distressed by it; allow it to pass and it probably will.<\/p>\n
How to use meta-cognition to let go of worries<\/strong><\/h2>\nAnother important principle is to recognise that there are things in life that you can control and many others that you cannot.<\/p>\n
When anxiety begins to coil itself around you once more, pause to consider whether it is focused on the controllable or the uncontrollable. If it\u2019s the latter, acknowledge that you are having the anxious thought or feeling and then let it pass (like the train passing through the station).<\/p>\n
If the anxiety is focused on something you can control, try to get out of your head and make some concrete plans that will surely make you feel better.<\/p>\n
For a work presentation, this might start with planning a specific time when you will do the background reading that is required. Make a plan to do the prep, and then make sure you follow through.<\/p>\n
Of course, self-help can only do so much. And if your anxiety problems are severe, it is important that you consult a mental health professional \u2013 if you like the sound of the principles and techniques I\u2019ve described perhaps someone trained in meta-cognitive therapy might be able to help you.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n- What is high-functioning anxiety? How to spot it and what you can do about it<\/a><\/li>\n
- How virtual reality is helping patients with phobias, anxiety disorders and more<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A psychologist explains the newest frontier of mental health therapy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27486,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-300x135.jpg",300,135,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-768x346.jpg",768,346,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-1024x462.jpg",800,361,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A psychologist explains the newest frontier of mental health therapy.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The patients who underwent meta-cognitive therapy had already shown superior improvements<\/a> compared with those who did CBT, both at the time they finished treatment and two years later.<\/p>\n For the 2021 paper, the researchers caught up with most of the same patients nine years later \u2013 and the meta-cognitive group again recovered better from anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Meta-cognitive therapists make a distinction between the positive thoughts you have about your anxiety-related thoughts and the negative thoughts you have about them.<\/p>\n The idea of having positive thoughts about anxious thoughts might sound like an oxymoron. But in fact many people who experience persistent anxiety have \u2018positive\u2019 thoughts about their worries and fears, like \u201cas long as I spend enough time worrying about the work presentation, it will help stop anything really bad from happening\u201d or \u201cmy worries about the presentation will help me to prepare for it\u201d.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, these kinds of thoughts can trap you in a worry cycle.<\/p>\n If you recognise the \u2018positive\u2019 type of thinking about anxiety, you can take some self-help steps to try to challenge yourself. For instance, you could spend a little time questioning these beliefs you have about worrisome thoughts.<\/p>\n Will time spent fretting about bad outcomes really lower the probability of those bad outcomes happening? Of course not \u2013 for instance, worrying about having a car accident or your plane crashing will not keep you safe.<\/p>\n Worrying about your work presentation being a disaster also won\u2019t prevent it from being a disaster (only knuckling down to some serious prep will do that).<\/p>\n Starting gently at first, you could even try engaging in some little experiments \u2013\u00a0seeing what happens if you let yourself stop worrying about upcoming events. Over time you\u2019ll hopefully come to see that worrying by itself doesn\u2019t protect you.<\/p>\n What about the negative thoughts that people have about their anxious thoughts? These include things like \u201cI can\u2019t stop my fearful thoughts\u201d; \u201cI can\u2019t stop myself from worrying\u201d; and \u201cmy mind won\u2019t stop racing \u2013\u00a0I must be going mad\u201d.<\/p>\n If you recognise these thinking about your anxious thoughts, again there are a few basic self-help steps you could try out.<\/p>\n Bear in mind that being scared of your anxious thoughts and trying to shut them down is only likely to make them worse \u2013\u00a0you\u2019re effectively training your mind to be scared of them, which will only make them stickier.<\/p>\n Meta-cognitive therapists would encourage you to try to detach yourself from your worrisome thoughts rather than fighting them.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Pia Callesen<\/a>, who is a leading researcher on meta-cognitive therapy, proposes a lovely metaphor \u2013 imagine your anxious thoughts as being like trains arriving at a railway station. Rather than climbing on board, simply let them arrive and then move on.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve given just a flavour of the kind of techniques used in meta-cognitive therapy, but there are many more. Lying beneath them all is an empowering principle, which is that your mind has evolved to deal with difficult emotions. You really just need to get out of its way.<\/p>\n Your mind is trying to actively intervene in your anxious thoughts \u2013 thinking you need to have them, or that you need to control or shut them down \u2013 so much that you cause yourself unnecessary problems.<\/p>\n You risk trapping yourself in cycles of worry about worry or fear about fear.<\/p>\n So, try if you can to recognise that a degree of worry and trepidation is normal and to not become too distressed by it; allow it to pass and it probably will.<\/p>\n Another important principle is to recognise that there are things in life that you can control and many others that you cannot.<\/p>\n When anxiety begins to coil itself around you once more, pause to consider whether it is focused on the controllable or the uncontrollable. If it\u2019s the latter, acknowledge that you are having the anxious thought or feeling and then let it pass (like the train passing through the station).<\/p>\n If the anxiety is focused on something you can control, try to get out of your head and make some concrete plans that will surely make you feel better.<\/p>\n For a work presentation, this might start with planning a specific time when you will do the background reading that is required. Make a plan to do the prep, and then make sure you follow through.<\/p>\n Of course, self-help can only do so much. And if your anxiety problems are severe, it is important that you consult a mental health professional \u2013 if you like the sound of the principles and techniques I\u2019ve described perhaps someone trained in meta-cognitive therapy might be able to help you.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n A psychologist explains the newest frontier of mental health therapy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27486,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-300x135.jpg",300,135,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-768x346.jpg",768,346,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind-1024x462.jpg",800,361,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/05\/overcoming-anxiety-how-to-use-new-meta-cognition-techniques-to-calm-your-restless-mind.jpg",1200,541,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A psychologist explains the newest frontier of mental health therapy.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27485"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to use <\/strong>meta-cognitive therapy to relieve anxiety<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\""Woman\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/metacognition-ebaaaca.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"Woman\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>How to use meta-cognition to let go of worries<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"