Use fusion for us

[Guest guest]

I have to tell you that I am having a very difficult time taking all

of this in. I am on Chapter 7 and trying not to " struggle " to

understand everything right at this moment. I read in an earlier

post someone suggesting to read through the book and not work so hard

at understanding but to just keep with it. That is exactly what I am

going to do.

I do have a question. Why can't we use cognitive fusion to our

advantage. On page 57 it says " cognitive fusion means you are taking

these statements as literal truths and, eventually you begin to

believe that you, in fact, are your pain. " Couldn't you then take

the good thoughts (because we all do have some good thoughts) and try

to fuse with them? I am not talking about countering our negative

thoughts but actually taking the positive side of what we feel about

ourselves and try to use cognitive fusion to expand it. I know that

I focus mainly on my negative thoughts because I am so engrossed in

my anxiety. I also understand that the idea here is to not try

to " make feelings " but to just accept and allow.

This may not make any sense but let me just explain what I mean a

little further. So right now I spend most of my time thinking about

my anxiety but then I am interupted from my interal dialogue while

talking with a friend. One of the traits I wrote down in the " I am a

person who... " is someone that is compassionate. Let's say the

friend then expresses how much they appreciate my concern for them.

Now at that moment I am feeling very good about myself. Isn't there

a way to fuse that thought/feeling/emotion to make it even stronger

so that I find even more value in myself?

It just seems to me that if most of the people reading this book are

like me, they are pretty down on themselves. So while we are trying

to " defuse " from the bad, it seems like we should " fuse strongly "

with the good. I understand we don't want to struggle to make the

feeling. I am just talking about using the cognitive defusion tools

in the reverse. Instead of trying to " externalize " the feeling or

thought, move to " internalize " it as much as you can.

Okay, here is the deal. As I stated earlier, I am very new at this

and I am trying to understand. I am a little afraid that I am asking

a very stupid question and to be honest, if you were standing right

next to me I wouldn't have asked it. Since I don't really know you I

feel free to state something that may make me look dumb. Saying all

that, I guess I am just asking you to be patient with me if I am

completely missing it. Hopefully, in time, I will have a better

comprehension of all of this!