Читать книгу Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies - Rob Willson - Страница 58

The point of task-concentration exercises is not to lessen your overall concentration but to concentrate harder on different aspects of the external environment. Some tasks require you to focus your attention on certain behaviours – such as listening to what another person is saying during a conversation or attempting to balance a tray of drinks as you walk through a crowded room.

In other situations, you may feel anxious but not have a specific task to attend to. In such a situation (for example, while sitting in a crowded waiting room), you can still focus externally. You can direct your attention to your surroundings, noticing other people, the features of the room, sounds and smells.

With practice, you can be both task- and environment-focused rather than self-focused, even in situations that you regard as highly threatening.

The following exercises aim to increase your understanding of how paying attention to sensations and images limits your ability to process information around you. The exercises will also help you realise that you can attend to external task-related behaviours. In other words, you can master choosing what you pay attention to in situations when your anxiety is triggered.

Intentionally directing your attention away from yourself does not mean trying to avoid noticing your sensations or suppressing your thoughts. Sometimes, people try to use thought suppression as a means of alleviating uncomfortable sensations and anxiety. However, suppression usually works only briefly, if at all. External focus is really about controlling your focus of attention even whilst feeling uncomfortable.