In this guided experiment, you'll learn and practice a powerful, evidence-based psychological skill for changing your relationship to difficult thoughts without trying to control, suppress, or eliminate them.

Rather than getting caught up in the content of your thoughts, this experiment helps you become more aware of the process of thinking itself. You'll practice observing thoughts as thoughts, bits of language or images arising in your mind, rather than taking them as facts about who you are or what your life means.

This episode guides you through a simple but profound three-step process:

1) Identifying a recurring, judgmental thought that tends to keep you stuck

2) Noticing how it feels to fully identify with that thought

3) Practicing increasing levels of distance, awareness, and flexibility in how you relate to it

As you work through the experiment, you may notice shifts in emotional intensity, body sensations, and your sense of freedom to choose how you respond — rather than being pushed around by your mind.

This practice draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based approaches, and decades of research on cognitive fusion and defusion. With regular practice, it can help reduce suffering related to anxiety, self-criticism, rumination, and avoidance, while supporting more flexible, values-based action in daily life.

As always, this is not passive listening.

You'll be encouraged to pause the audio, reflect, and write your observations in your own lab notebook as you actively test this skill in the laboratory of your daily life.

This podcast is not a replacement for mental health assessment or treatment, but it is a place to learn and practice science-based psychological skills in an honest, open, authentic, and deeply human way.

Welcome to the experiment.

Learn more at
https://www.honestmentalhealth.com/

In today's guided practice, we explore one of the most well-studied, and counterproductive, patterns that keeps people stuck:
trying to control our thoughts.

This experiment begins simply: "For the next two minutes, try not to think of a purple cow."

What follows is an experiential deep dive into:

· What happens when we try to suppress or avoid certain thoughts

· Why this often increases the frequency and intensity of the very thoughts we're trying to push away

· How this "rebound effect" shows up in anxiety, trauma, insomnia, OCD, and daily life

· A more effective alternative based in mindfulness and cognitive defusion

After experiencing thought suppression directly, we contrast it with a second exercise: mindfully observing whatever thoughts arise, without trying to control them, push them away, or make them stop.

Across both exercises, you'll use your "lab notebook" to track what you notice, including:

· What thoughts arose when you tried not to think of a purple cow

· What the quality of your experience was like in each condition

· How often the thought appeared when suppressing vs. when observing

· How you reacted to these thoughts in each exercise

· What this reveals about the process of thinking and the suffering we create through control

We then explore the science behind these effects, including:

· Why thought suppression reliably increases unwanted thoughts

· How it fuels rumination, worry, obsessive thinking, and avoidance

· Why controlling thoughts keeps us stuck in long-term suffering

· A more workable alternative: noticing thoughts as thoughts

· Learning to relate differently to thinking so we can live more freely and intentionally

The goal of this episode isn't to get rid of painful thoughts.
It's to help you change your relationship to them.

So as you go about your day, notice when the mind starts playing "The Purple Cow" game, trying to avoid, push away, or control your thoughts. When it happens, see if you can step back, make a gentle mental note, and return to observing thoughts like waves in the ocean or clouds in the sky: arising, changing, passing on their own.

No need to control your thoughts.

Just observe.

Just notice.

Just practice.

In this guided experiment, we turn on the light in the attic of the mind.

If you've ever struggled with worry, rumination, perfectionism, intrusive thoughts, obsessive loops, or getting pulled out of the present moment, this practice may be one of the most important skills you ever learn.

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Observe the process of thinking

• Notice the content of thoughts as they arise and pass away

• Differentiate thoughts from facts

• Change your relationship to thoughts rather than trying to control them

• Reduce the influence of "Judge E."

• Experience your mind as an open sky or ocean, where thoughts are simply clouds or waves drifting by

• Build the skill of mindfulness that supports DBT, ACT, and non-dual awareness work

You'll be guided through three structured mindfulness-of-thought exercises, each designed to help you see thoughts clearly, gently, and with far less struggle:

1. Prompted thoughts (noticing what appears when you hear certain words)

2. Intentional thinking (reviewing your day and observing the flow of thought)

3. Open awareness (observing thoughts arising and falling in spacious awareness)

Throughout the experiment, you'll use your lab notebook to write down what you notice and to track how your relationship to thoughts begins to shift.

This is not about clearing your mind or stopping thoughts.
It's about discovering, through direct experience, that:

You are not your thoughts.
You are the awareness in which thoughts come and go.

And from this perspective, the freedom to live more consciously, intentionally, and compassionately becomes possible.

Listen now, and let's explore this together.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HonestMentalHealthTherapy
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/honest-mental-health-with-brian-curtis-phd/id1638878549