Altering the context of thought

Deactivation of functions through vocal play

Language has immense power over us because of the meanings we have associated with words throughout our lives.

However, words also have physical properties: they are sounds, vibrations and movements of the larynx.

An excellent way to defuse ourselves is to strip words of their semantic meaning and remain only with their physical properties.

If a thought terrifies us, we can change the way we "hear" it internally.

A classic technique is to sing the negative thought to the tune of a popular nursery rhyme, carol or solemn hymn.

If a person thinks "I'm a complete mess," he or she is invited to sing that phrase to the tune of "Happy Birthday." In doing so, it is impossible to maintain the gravity and emotional weight of the content.

The meaning of "being a mess" clashes head-on with the playful context of the melody, creating a dissonance that breaks the fusion.

Another variant is to repeat the thought using ridiculous voices, such as that of a cartoon character, a robot in slow motion or as if we had inhaled helium.

The aim is not to ridicule the person's suffering, but to demonstrate that the thought is just a string of sounds that, by changing its acoustic context, loses its ability to dictate our mood.

The computer screen technique and visual manipulation

For people with a more visual processing style, imagining thoughts as written text is a powerful tool.

We invite the client to close his or her eyes and visualize his or her most painful thought (e.g., "I will never be happy") projected on a computer screen or mobile device. Initially, the text usually appears in black, serious font and large size.

Next, we guide the person to play with the formatting of the text as if in a graphics editor.

We ask him or her to change the color of the letters to a neon pink or bright green, to change the typography to a comic or childish font, to make the letters dance, blow up like balloons or jump across the screen.

You can also imagine a karaoke ball bouncing over the syllables to the beat of an upbeat song.

By manipulating the visual characteristics of thought, we reify experience.

We stop looking through the thought (believing it) and start looking at the thought (observing it as an object).

This shift in perspective reduces the credibility of the negative sentence; it is hard to take a life threat seriously when it is written in colorful letters that dance the conga.

Summary

To strip words of their semantic meaning, we play with their physical properties. Singing a painful thought to the tune of "Happy Birthday" or using ridiculous voices creates a fusion-breaking dissonance.

For those who process visually, imagining thoughts as text on a screen is powerful. We manipulate the format by changing colors or fonts to comic styles, treating the thought as a modifiable graphic object rather than a truth.

By manipulating these acoustic or visual characteristics, we reify the experience. We stop looking through the thought and start looking at the thought, drastically reducing its credibility and its ability to dictate our state of mind.