Image via WikipediaThere's a psychiatrist in Australia, Dr. Chris Walsh, who uses mindfulness-based interventions in his practice. He has a wonderful website (click here) that I was delighted to discover, partly because much of the work he has published there has great potential usefulness in my own teaching and practice. One example: he uses the technique of mental noting (or labeling), with patients who are chronic worriers (sometimes this can become quite disabling, in which case it might be properly diagnosed as Generalized Anxiety Disorder). Here is an excerpt from his written instructions (found here) about this; he calls it "Just Worrying": THE “JUST WORRYING” LABELLING TECHNIQUE
As a preamble to discussing this technique with a client it is often helpful to differentiate worrying from constructive problem solving. Worrying involves repetitive circular thinking, which is associated with anxiety and produces no enactable practical outcomes.
This technique simply involves a person labelling worry as “just worrying” and then bringing their attention back to their breath or to simply change the subject of their thinking. Every time a person catches themselves worrying they just label it again and change the subject. It doesn't matter if a person does it 10 times in one minute or if they only realize they have been worrying after a period of 2 hours and then apply the technique. The important thing is that the person applies the technique when they realize they are worrying.
This technique involves no criticism or internal struggle, just simple non-judgemental labelling.Therefore it is important in this regard that the client does not change the label from “just worrying” to “don’t worry”...
The same technique can be applied to other disturbing repetitive mental events using labels such as “just doubting” or “just criticizing”. This is subtly but significantly different to avoidance. It is not running away from the aversive mental stimulus. Rather it is the non-judgemental labelling which is encapsulated in the word “just.”
The repeated practice of mental noting, or labeling, can help us to gain just a little (just enough) healthy distance from, and perspective about, the process (worrying) within which we sometimes get enmeshed, or over-involved; this distance, and clear perspective, reduces the suffering that is created when we let the process get out of control.
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