A great exercise as outlined by Steven Hayes is to, as he puts it, make friends with your cravings. A helpful example is a food craving. I personally like cookies, and especially those from Crumbl or Shookies Cookies. So, when I recently walked past a chocolate chip cookie on my kitchen counter, I felt the urge to stop and inhale said cookie. Instead, as advised by Steven Hayes, I found myself stopping in front of the cookie then paying attention to the craving:

1. If your craving had a shape, what would it be?
2. If it had a color, what would it be?
3. If it had a size, how big or small would it be?
4. Does it seem solid, like an object, or does it shimmer, flutter, shake, or move?
5. Where does it live in your body? Do you experience it in your head? Your belly? Somewhere else?
6. Are there any emotions that are connected to this craving? Do you feel anxious, stressed out, sad, angry, or something else?

So, for me, I noticed a circular, blue, shimmering, glowing craving that happened to be situated in my chest. Once I was able to identify it, I “de-fused” from it, in the words of Steven Hayes, and I allowed it to leave my chest and float away. I then continued walking on past the intact cookie and into another room. Interestingly, the craving was not in my abdomen, where I would expect a hunger craving to be, but rather in my chest. So what feeling was the craving attempting to address? As I reflected on it I came to believe it was sadness, an awareness that helped me as I moved on in my day.

Mindfulness encourages curiosity and exploration. When I’m mindful, I’m not fleeing from or otherwise avoiding the feeling, in this case a craving. I explore it with curiosity and often find that, in doing so, it loses whatever power it holds over me.

Spotlight on: Rebecca Cho, M.D.:

"Medications are an important but imperfect tool in addressing the complex and multifactorial nature of psychiatric disorders. Therapy modalities such as mindfulness are integral in individualizing one’s treatment based on their unique backgrounds, histories, environments, and thought patterns."

Dr. Rebecca Cho heads North Star Kids, our child and adolescent treatment division, providing both medication management and psychotherapy services.

Thank you to Melanie Santos for recommending Steven Hayes’ book, The Liberated Mind, which is a wonderful read about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Best wishes,

Brandon Gimbel, M.D.
Cari Betts, PMHNP-BC
Laura Carlson, M.D.
Rebecca Cho, M.D.
Lauren Howard, LCPC, CADC

​www.northstarbh.com​

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