How the Cognitive Distance Technique Helps Evaluate Things More Objectively

The publishing house "Alpina Publisher" published a book by M. Vasquez "The Stoics Win". It contains the most outstanding thoughts and ideas of the great Stoic philosophers. Based on them, the author proposes a system of mental training that will allow self-improvement and overcoming difficulties. We are publishing an excerpt from the fifth chapter on the three ways of distancing.

The Stoics knew that when we change our view of external events, we change their effect on us. For example, they advised separating thoughts from external events, avoiding merging with them. By establishing such a cognitive distance, we can evaluate everything more objectively and calmly.

The first step is to understand that our thoughts are not ourselves, that we can separate ourselves from them. We can consciously analyze them instead of succumbing to the emotions they evoke. Stepping back allows us to see them more clearly and ask ourselves if we can interpret reality differently.

In modern psychotherapy this technique is called cognitive distancing, and although its scope is much wider, the Stoics used it mainly to soften the blows of fate and resist daily temptations.

There are different ways to distance. First of all, it is decomposition, the conscious decomposition of the source of fear or desire into its constituent elements. Then - an attempt to present what happened to us as if it happened to someone else, and thus create a distance between ourselves and the event.

And finally, the Stoics advised to look at each event more broadly - both in terms of space and in terms of time. Let's take a look at each of these methods.

Decomposition

Things that tempt us lose their appeal when broken down into their component parts. For example, we remember how Marcus Aurelius said that his imperial attire was nothing more than sheep's wool, painted with crushed shellfish, the wine is fermented grape juice, and the dish served is a corpse animal. He could get whatever he wanted, but he preferred manage only what is necessary, using decomposition to resist desires.

The words with which we mentally describe external things determine the emotions that arise in us in connection with these things. Therefore, we must use those words that will evoke the right emotions.

No one understands the power of external attraction better than a marketer. For example, food manufacturers often try to present their highly processed products as a symbol of something highly spiritual and sophisticated.

Decomposition helps to see all of them tricks. Looking objectively at these products, we deprive them of their attractiveness. Coca-Cola is just water with sugar and flavorings. Your favorite cookie is just a mixture of cheap, refined ingredients: flour, vegetable oil, sweeteners, and other unhealthy things.

Our goal is not to reduce the pleasure of life, but to learn to appreciate what is really important, reducing our craving for things that harm us.

This technique can also be used if you are afraid to talk to people who seem to be in a higher position than you.

If you don't want to be afraid of the popularity, power or wealth of others, think that behind all this external gloss are just people like us.

Seeing the world through someone else's eyes

When something happens to others, we usually judge it more objectively than we do to ourselves. The Stoics claimed that a true sage can look at what happened to him from the side, as if it happened to his neighbor.

As always, this is easier to understand with the mind than with the heart, but if you try to look at what happened to you through the eyes of another person, it will be easier for you to cope with the situation. IN cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, it is recommended to describe problems in the third person in order to create a certain distance.

We often give good advice to those who have a problem, but when the same thing happens to us, we do not use our own recommendations. In this case, you can also use the technique "Example of the sage." Try to look at the situation through the eyes of someone you admire. What would he do? You may not be able to do everything perfectly, but understanding that there is a different vision of the problem will help you.

The process of changing oneself must be perceived as a scientific experiment - with detached curiosity. You should not complain and worry that you didn’t manage to lose a single kilogram in a week, but simply ask yourself why it happened and what should be done differently next week. There are no failures, there are only actions and their results.

Expansion of time and space

We pay special attention to what is happening here and now. In general, it is right to focus on the present. However, in a difficult situation, you need to distance yourself from problems in order to better see them. If you look at the problem in a broader context, it will no longer seem so important. Stoics proposed a series of exercises to help expand the boundaries of thinking in terms of both space and time.

According to Marcus Aurelius, you can reduce the experience of problems if you “imagine how big the universe and infinite time, reflect on the transience of all things, including our own life".

As we have seen, it is enough to ask ourselves whether the problem will still be as important to us in 10 years. In most cases, the answer to this question is no, which reduces our suffering in the present. If the problem is still important in 10 years, then the time frame needs to be extended. Will it matter in 100 years? In 1,000 years?

In his letters of consolation to Seneca, talking about death at an early age, advised to remember that the life span of any person is nothing compared to infinity. If we accept the fact that our entire life is negligible compared to the infinity of time and space, then our problems are also reduced.

This idea is different from the fashionable approach today, where it is customary to put ourselves on a pedestal and attach great importance to everything that happens to us. The Stoics had the opposite approach: they urged us to understand that our life is insignificant on the scale of the universe.

They said the only constant was change. And although the idea of ​​transience and impermanence is attributed to Buddhism, in fact it appeared several centuries before the first Buddhist texts. The Greek Heraclitus proposed the idea of ​​universal variability and movement, known from his catchphrase "everything flows, everything changes." The Stoics often referred to the words of Heraclitus, who said that the same river cannot be entered twice, because it changes all the time.

Accepting the permanence of change and the insignificance of our role in the universe liberates us. It helps to take a broader view of the problems and does not let success go to the head, but failures - break us.

This means that we should not lose our composure because of insignificant events and everything is really insignificant in comparison with the infinity of time and space. Our life is fleeting, and other lives come to replace it.

Oddly enough, reflections on one's own insignificance do not oppress, but liberate. Our problems are not so serious, there is no need to try too hard to please others or follow traditions. Freed from fear, we can make the most of the short time available to us to realize our dreams.

The Stoics Win is a collection of mental techniques and exercises that will help develop mindfulness and protect the mind from anxiety, stress, and temptation. They will be useful to those who want to change for the better, improve themselves, and know themselves.

Buy a book