Human beings are always thinking. Our brains evolved to scan for threat, anticipate problems, and remember past pain so we could survive.
That negativity bias kept our ancestors alive—but in modern life it often keeps us stuck. Many people spend large portions of their day replaying past regrets or fast-forwarding into imagined future problems.
When attention is pulled into the past, sadness and guilt tend to grow. When it is pulled into the future, anxiety often follows. The mind’s attempt to protect us can unintentionally amplify suffering.
Mindfulness helps by strengthening our ability to return to the present moment. But there is another powerful psychological flexibility skill set that complements mindfulness: cognitive defusion.
Cognitive defusion skills train us to step back from our thoughts rather than automatically believing or obeying them. Instead of being “inside” a thought—seeing the world through it—we learn to notice the thought as an event happening in the mind. This shift creates psychological space. The thought may still be present, but it has less control over our emotions and behaviour.
Both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) agree that getting entangled with unhelpful thoughts often leads to significant suffering. Where they differ is emphasis.
CBT tends to focus on identifying, monitoring, and evaluating the content of thoughts—examining evidence, spotting distortions, and generating more balanced alternatives.
ACT focuses more on changing our relationship to thoughts—helping us notice them, create distance from them, and choose actions based on values rather than mental noise.
Drawing from CBT, it can be extremely helpful to recognize common thinking patterns such as catastrophic thinking (“This will be a disaster”), overgeneralizing (“I always mess things up”), mind-reading (“They must think I’m incompetent”), or all-or-nothing thinking. Simply labelling a thought pattern can weaken its grip. Once identified, a person can reframe it or redirect attention rather than continuing to fuel it.
Drawing from ACT, we can additionally practise specific defusion techniques to reduce how “hooked” we become by our thoughts. For example:
• Name the process: “I’m having the thought that I’m going to fail.” This small phrase reminds us that a thought is not a fact—it is a mental event.
• Silly voice technique: Repeat the unhelpful thought in a cartoon voice or sing it to the tune of a children’s song. The goal is not to mock yourself, but to experience the thought as just words and sounds.
• Pop-up blocker image: Imagine closing the thought like an unwanted browser pop-up.
• Leaves on a stream: Visualize placing each thought on a leaf floating down a stream and watching it drift away.
• Clouds in the sky: See thoughts as passing weather rather than permanent truths.
The aim is not to eliminate thinking—that would be impossible. The goal is flexibility. As people strengthen their ability to notice thoughts while remembering that thoughts are not facts, they gain freedom.
Some thoughts are useful and deserve attention. Many others are simply mental habits shaped by evolution and experience. When we learn we do not have to fuse with every thought, we suffer less. We can allow thoughts to come and go without being pulled off course, choosing instead to act in ways that align with our deeper values.
Open Defusion techniques handout
