Defusion

Metaphors

There are a huge number of metaphors for acceptance, and the ones in this box are a mere sprinkling. Passengers on the Bus (Hayes et al., 1999) and Demons on the Boat (Harris, 2007) are very versatile in that they encapsulate the entire hexaflex in one metaphor, and can therefore be used to accentuate any process in any session. Both metaphors are essentially the same. I changed Passengers on the Bus to Demons on the Boat for three reasons: (1) demons and boats have a much richer cultural heritage than passengers and buses; (2) just about every single book on ACT has Passengers on the Bus as a key metaphor and I felt like a change; and (3) that’s just the kind of guy I am. Harris, Russ. ACT Made Simple (The New Harbinger Made Simple Series) . New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition. See there for a full description.

• See Demons on the Boat. Ch 9 in Harris, Russ. The Happiness Trap (p. 76). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
• Passenger on the Bus summary: "The bus each of us is driving is different than the average bus.  It has a steering wheel, but no gas pedal or brakes, and only moves at one speed – the speed of life.  Passengers get on and off the bus all the time, except that once they get on, they may not get off, and may even invite their friends or family on for the ride.  The dilemma for each of us then, is being the driver.  We are always driving the bus, no matter what.  That being the case, we can either stay focused on where we're driving and keep our eyes on the road, or spend our energies trying to make our passengers settle down.  Sometimes passengers can be very unruly, restless, noisy, and disrespectful, which makes it easy to sometimes find ourselves caught up in the struggle to try to get them to behave.  What we come to find though, is that as we struggle with them, we are now no longer paying much attention to where we're headed, and may even get kind of lost for a while before we find our way again." https://coffspsychneuro.com.au/articles/70

Research

The handout for the cognitive defusion group was titled ‘Seeing your thoughts differently’. The rationale section explained that thoughts can sometimes sabotage intentions and that in situations like these it can be helpful to think of oneself as different from one’s thoughts. The strategy section went on to describe the mindbus metaphor (i.e., viewing oneself as the driver of a bus and one’s thoughts as passengers, see Hayes & Smith, 2005; Hayes et al., 1999) and gave three examples of strategies the participant could use in response to difficult ‘passengers’ (i.e., difficult thoughts; describing them, letting them know who is in charge, making them talk with a different accent, or sing what they are saying; see Hayes & Smith, 2005; Hayes et al., 1999).

In the practice exercise section, participants were asked to select one of the three strategies and spend 5 min imagining themselves using it, either in response to recent difficult chocolate-related thoughts or in response to the types of difficult chocolate-related thoughts they might experience over the next 5 days. The instructions section asked participants to carry the bag of chocolates with them at all times over the next 5 days, to try to resist eating any kind of chocolate, and to use the strategy outlined in the handout whenever they were tempted to eat chocolate. In order to try to limit social desirability bias, the instructions also noted that resisting chocolate is difficult so the participant may find that they cannot always manage this. In which case, they should simply make a note of what they have eaten in their diary.

Jenkins KT, Tapper K. Resisting chocolate temptation using a brief mindfulness strategy. Br J Health Psychol. 2014 Sep;19(3):509-22. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12050. Epub 2013 May 17. PMID: 23678870.

Torah Sources

• See Rav Shlomo Wolbe, e.g. ואם בכל-זאת היצר מציק, לא יתעצבן על היצר… על היצר לא צריך לשים לב כל כך. חזקה על כל בן-תורה שהוא מתנגד לו עד מאה ועשרים כמה שיוכל, יותר – אין לשים לב אליו.