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Who Is The Author?

I recently had an opportunity to speak with Scott Symington, PhD, author of Freedom from Anxious Thoughts and Feelings: A Two-Step Mindfulness Approach for Moving Beyond Fear and Worry. Dr. Symington is a licensed clinical psychologist dedicated to helping adults overcome worry and anxiety, negative moods, addictive behaviors, and other conditions stealing people’s joy and freedom.

What is The Two-Step Mindfulness Approach?

Dr. Symington defined the two-step approach as a user friendly application of mindfulness you can use when you start to worry or feel anxious. With this approach, referred to as the Two-Screen Method, you imagine your internal world as a media room with a Front Screen and a Side Screen. The Front Screen is your experience of the present moment, as well as all the thoughts and feelings that show up inside you which translate into a sense of well-being. The Side Screen, off to the right (still inside your mind), is where the fears, worries, insecurities, and potentially destructive thoughts and feeling show up.

The Front Screen Anchors

To help you stay on the Front Screen, Dr. Symington’s Two-Screen Method has three anchors designed to keep you tethered to the present moment and positive life action. You use one or more of these three anchors when the Side Screen shows up inside your mind. The three anchors include Healthy Distractions and Activities, Mindfulness Skills, and Loving Action (pg. 16).

Defining Mindfulness

Dr. Symington wrote that the basic definition of mindfulness includes the following themes:

• “Observing inner experience as an impartial spectator, where you don’t layer meaning or judgments or automatically identify with the thoughts and feelings coming into awareness
• Accepting – not resisting or fighting – painful or unwanted thoughts and feelings
• Attending to the present moment” (pg. 53)

De-Energizing The Side Screen

As you’re living your life, the Side Screen will suddenly light up and worries will come you’re your mind and you will experience a sense of insecurity or anxious restlessness. When the Side Screen suddenly does appear, your internal eyes will reflexively swivel over to take a look at the threatening thoughts and feelings. In order to de-energize the anxious thoughts and feelings. Dr. Symington suggested you apply the principle of Accept & Redirect, which is the first step of the Two-Screen Method. You redirect your attention to the Front Screen, such as the present moment or the task at hand, while allowing the anxious tape to play in your peripheral vision.

According to Dr. Symington, by applying the principle of Accept & Redirect, you deprive the anxiety of its three sources of energy: Spotlight of Attention, Reactivity, and Avoidance Behaviors. Not only do you want to accept the presence of the unwanted thoughts and feelings, but it’s helpful to accept that your attention will most likely be drawn back to the Side Screen, requiring you to continual redirect back to the Front Screen. You can use this approach for any type of anxiety, whether it’s flying, driving or worrying too much about things you can’t control in life.

How The Two-Step Approach Works

Dr. Symington gave an example of someone who is anxious about her upcoming flight. The day before the flight, a woman has lunch with a friend; while she is having lunch, the side screen appears and she becomes worried, thinking “I have to fly and I’m worried about what is going to happen”. The anxious energy and distressing thoughts place a strong pull on her mind.

This woman can help diffuse her fear and anxiety by first applying Accept & Redirect, rotating her attention to the present moment, while allowing the anxious tape to play in her peripheral vision on the side screen.  After removing her attention from the side screen, she can further de-energize the side screen content by moving into nonresistance (not fighting the hard experience), which is a form of mindfulness. This will help her accomplish the goal of staying connected to the present moment and her friend with whom she’s having lunch.

Her next step is to use at least one the front screen anchors. In this example, she can use Healthy Distractions, such as intensely listening to her friend or noticing the people in her environment. This same woman, later when she actually is at the airport getting ready to fly, used the Loving-Action Anchor to help with her anxiety. She became a super encourager as she winded her way through the airport, genuinely complementing a woman on her dress, thanking a TSA agent for his professionalism and so on. She used the anxious energy connected to flying to express an important part of her personality, that of being an encourager. Not only does she get the satisfaction of not being held back by the anxiety but this loving-action, which is incongruent with being under threat (a genuine emergency), tells the threat center of the brain that she is not in danger, which decreases the anxiety.

The Freedom Ladder

Dr. Symington recommended building a Freedom Ladder to address avoidance behaviors, those things you avoid in life because they make you anxious. A sample freedom ladder for a socially anxious person may look something like this (you start with the 40/100 experience and gradually work your way up the ladder):

• “100 Making an announcement at church
• 90 Walking into Home Depot and asking for the deli section
• 80 Skipping down the sidewalk when people are a(you start with the 40/100 experience and gradually work your way up the ladder):round
• 70 Offering a dissenting political view with someone you don’t know well
• 60 Sending food back at a restaurant
• 50 Asking to try on an article clothing at a retail store
• 40 Asking a stranger for directions” (pg. 38)

How The Freedom Ladder Is Used by Patients

The use of the Freedom Ladder helps the user realize that there is really no danger about a situation that is perceived as dangerous. If someone feels anxious about flying, they will become hyper-vigilant about everything that goes on during the flight. An example would be sounds made by the engine or normal turbulence. Instead of focusing on bodily symptoms, you want to apply Accept & Redirect and find a sticky home for your attention on the Front Screen (use one of the anchors). Maybe you do some deep breathing (Mindfulness Anchor), while forcing yourself to read an engaging novel (Healthy Distraction). This will cause the anxiety to gradually decrease.

How Is Social Media To Blame for Worry and Anxiety?

Dr. Symington pointed out that the increased use of social media is partially to blame for increasing levels of anxiety. Social media prompts people to compare themselves to others who are supposedly having better lives than they are; this could be construed to mean that other people don’t have the same fears and anxieties they do. In reality, people tend to post the best parts of their lives instead of parts of their lives that are challenging.

If people feel they are missing out on life, they can become anxious and restless. It becomes easier for them to vent on social media than talk to people face to face. If someone is anxious about flying or driving on freeways, it is their fault because they apparently are unable to face their fears. The person who feels anxious about driving on freeways may begin to believe that there is something wrong with them.

Social media has made people more isolated. Social networks tend to give people the superficial impression that their lives are more wonderful than they really are because of what they choose to post. People can feel isolated and begin to wonder if they are the only ones who experience fear, anxiety and worry in their life.

What Can Be Done To Minimize Social Media’s Influence?

Dr. Symington recommended that you be aware of what tends to trigger your anxiety or depressed mood, such as seeing romantic couples or dream-like vacations. If these triggers are caught early enough, you can prevent the thoughts that cause worry and dark moods from gaining traction. If triggers are not caught, their thoughts will cause people to energize the content showing up on the side screen. He recommended that people put boundaries around social media, where they establish set times to unplug. This protects you from inadvertently energizing your side screen and fueling a negative mood or worry cycle. Instead, use the time away from social media to focus on the Front Screen, focusing on those things in life that offer meaning, purpose and aliveness.

How Can Anxiety be Used Positively?

Dr. Symington said that anxiety can be used positively. The brain’s ability to scan for potential threats dates back to ancient times. In modern times, it has grown more abstract in scanning for threats that are not dangerous in reality. The use of the Freedom Ladder (referenced above) can teach the threat center of the brain that a particular activity, which is currently a source of anxiety, is not dangerous—a genuine threat to self. This happens through gradual exposure to the feared activity. The brain changes the threat status of the feared event and begins turning down the anxious volume. You begin to realize that a situation that used to produce fear is really not a threat. The task can be accomplished with confidence.

How The Brain Causes Worry and Anxiety

Dr. Symington continued that the brain’s threat center collects data about a given situation. The more exposure the brain has to a challenging situation, the less anxiety the person will feel. If the feared activity is avoided, however, the opposite happens. You confirm the threat status of whatever is being avoided. That’s why avoidance always makes anxiety worse. You reinforce the message that flying, elevators, the dentist or whatever the fear may be is indeed dangerous and worthy of an anxiety signal. This causes an escalating cycle of more avoidance and more anxiety.

How Worry and Anxiety Can Be Reduced

Dr. Symington recommended some action steps people can take to reduce anxiety. When you find yourself hanging out on the anxious side screen, you can use the worries and nervous energy as a reminder and catalyst for positive action. You apply the principle of Accept & Redirect and engage in purposeful action (Front Screen). You allow the side screen to run its tape (off to the side) while you redirect the energy it’s kicking off to lean into the present moment (practice mindfulness) or engage in an activity that expresses the best parts of who you are, such as sending an encouraging note or email to a friend or praying for someone in need. This approach not only protects you from energizing the worries and anxious feelings on the side screen but also gives you the satisfaction of being your best in the midst of a challenge.

How Is Grief Connected to the Two-Step Method?

What does all this have to do with grief? Dr. Symington pointed out that grief is a part of life. It is on the front screen as a reminder that someone who was loved was lost. He recommended that a grieving person should let the tears flow. This is different than engaging in depressive thinking. In your grief process it’s healing to allow the wave of sadness to express itself and pass through. Where you want to be careful is then going away in your mind (hanging out on the Depressive Side Screen) and investing in unhelpful and destructive thoughts about your life and future. This will interfere with a healthy grief process.

Further Information

Freedom from Anxious Thoughts and Feelings: A Two-Step Mindfulness Approach for Moving Beyond Fear and Worry can provide further information on how the two-step approach can enable people to face their fears and anxieties in a variety of situations. For people over 60 with anxieties ranging from driving on freeways and flying to merely asking for directions, the information Dr. Symington provides can help people learn to deal with their anxieties and fears in a positive way.