Hello everyone. I would like to ask something that is not very much connected to OCD. I am a little bit confused about something. As far as i am concerned mindfulness is about not judging our thoughts but only recognise them and letting them go. On the other hand, CBT in my eyes is the exact opposite, where someone must judge his or her thoughts in order to change the distorted thinking. Is it only me that I find mindfulness and CBT to be the exact opposite? Can someone explain to me because i am confused. I am not talking about ocd because I know that erp os the best approach and I have started mine, but i would like someone to enlighten me about cbt and mindfulness.

Hi Tsakatha, I am by no means an expert or doctor, but I’ve always thought similarly to you, with mindfulness being technique for being aware of thoughts/feelings without any judgment of good/bad and CBT as a way of focusing on certain behavior and then changing that behavior. In that respect, yes they do seem to be opposite in their approach, however there is also Mindfullness based CBT (MCBT) which I believe aims to teach an individual to separate their “self” from their thoughts/feelings and accept that the thoughts/feelings exist and observe them, but not interacting, dwelling on, or judging them. To me this sounds sounds somewhat similar to when we practice sitting with uncertainty by acknowledging intrusive thoughts, but not reacting to them by trying to either prove or disprove them and try to not interact further and go about our day. Not sure if I helped or confused us both more, but I agree that they seem opposite in their basic approach, but yet both can be effective depending on the illness, individual and circumstance.