Dr. Shwetambara Sabharwal, Mumbai (2025)

22/12/2022

What is Cognitive Diffusion?
Diffusion is a technique that is primarily used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to detach, separate, or get some distance from our thoughts and emotions as well as other internal experiences such as beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, memories.

The aim of diffusion is to:
* Decrease our attachment to our inner experiences
* Reduce the believability of thoughts
* Decrease the influence of thoughts on our behaviors and experiences
* Increase our ability to be present and take effective action
* Facilitate psychological flexibility

To understand how cognitive diffusion works, hold both of your hands about two inches in front of your face. All you can see are your hands, right? Now create some space between your face and your hands by extending your arms. You've widened your view. You can still see your hands, and now you can also see everything else in the room.

In the same way, cognitive diffusion trains you to start noticing your thoughts and identifying the negative ones. When we're stuck in a negative thought cycle, it's difficult to clearly see the bigger picture and identify our thoughts or how they are affecting us. Once you've allowed your mind to pull away from and identify the negative thoughts, you can begin to reframe them in a positive way!

21/12/2022

Suffering is an integral part of this precious gift of life. However there are a few things we can keep in mind to minimise it.

16/12/2022

Did you know that your brain is always changing? That’s the one constant about the most complex organ we have that controls every part of us. “Brain plasticity” is the process of the brain to learn new information, grow new connections and repair broken ones. Throughout life, as we age, acquire knowledge and have more experiences, our brain continues to develop.

The good news is that there are several things you can do to keep your brain functioning its best as you grow wiser. Check this post out !

13/12/2022

Do you practice grounding strategies regularly?

Grounding techniques are usually quick things you can do to bring yourself back to the present moment.

This five-step exercise is one of the most popular grounding exercises. It can be done anywhere and is particularly helpful during anxious moments.

11/12/2022

What are your beliefs about productivity?

Do you recognize any of these beliefs when approaching an important project or task?

If you're nodding your head, you can work on challenging the belief through your actions.
This may look like:
- setting time boundaries for projects and scheduling breaks
- stopping when it feels good enough but not perfect
- setting realistic goals and adjusting them when you need

Small changes like this can significantly impact your productivity beliefs because they challenge the logic in these faulty beliefs.

What little action can you take this week to challenge a toxic productivity belief?

10/12/2022

Triggers exist for a reason. They remind you of something difficult or traumatic that then causes an emotional or physical reaction in your mind or body.

It's really difficult to calm yourself down when you've had a reaction to something out of your control, to emotionally regulate, to banish the urge to self-destruct, to quieten the spiralling thoughts or stop the anger, anxiety or depression as it starts.

Try and work out what the trigger was and why it caused that response in you.
Was a stranger rude? How did that make you feel? What did it remind you of? How can you move past that feeling now?

Once you get to the root cause of your reaction, you can understand it, and once you understand it, you have power over it - it stops being confusing and frightening, and instead turns into something tangible, that you can tackle.

If you identify your triggers -
you unlock the door to what they really represent.

30/11/2022

OCD is the presence of obsessions, compulsions OR obsessions + compulsions.

Obsessions are unwanted and intrusive thoughts, urges, or images that cause marked anxiety or distress. People who have OCD try to get rid of or neutralize obsessions through compulsions.

Compulsions are the repeated thoughts or behaviors that an individual feels compelled to do in order to eliminate obsessive thoughts and/or accompanying feelings, physical sensations, or to prevent a feared future outcome.
Individuals who take obsessive thoughts seriously and act on them actually continue the OCD cycle and cause more distress and dysfunction for themselves.

29/11/2022

You can boost your self confidence and mood by being kind to yourself and celebrating your successes, no matter how small or big they are.

Additionally, by paying attention to your needs and practicing good self care you can protect your mental health!

What are your ways to root for yourself ? Let us know in the comments section

18/11/2022

Instead of imagining large walls when you think about boundaries, imagine building stronger connections for yourself and others.

Boundaries are a way for you to build self-trust and nurture yourself. Without boundaries, you're allowing others to have priority over how you navigate your life.

There are two types of boundaries: internal and external.

External boundaries allow you to establish healthy limits in relationships with others and help you to regulate how you interact with the world around you.

Internal boundaries are between you and yourself.
Both types (internal and external) influence one another.

What boundaries would you add to this list?

17/11/2022

Anxiety can be debilitating and affect your daily life. Even the smallest of tasks can feel unreachable and can fill you with added stress and worry.

In many cases, social situations are extremely triggering. If you've struggled with social anxiety, it's common to develop coping mechanisms to ease it.

Unfortunately, some coping mechanisms/ behaviors can come off as "rude" to those who don't know or understand the reason for the behaviors.

If you or someone you love struggles with anxiety and displays these behaviors, remember that it's unlikely that the person intends to be rude. Instead, the behavior is likely a method that has become a way to adapt to challenging situations. The person may not even realize they are engaging in these behaviors!

14/11/2022

When you think of “self-care," what comes to mind?

Do you picture fuzzy blankets, nature walks, bubble baths, and meditation?

While self-care can include these things, this isn't the only side of self-care.

Self-care should not be something we resort to because we are so absolutely exhausted that we need some reprieve from our own relentless internal pressure. True self-care is not bubble baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from. And that often takes doing the things you sometimes least want to do.

It often means looking your failures and disappointments square in the eye and re-strategizing. It is not satiating your immediate desires. It is letting go. It is choosing new. It is letting yourself be normal. Regular. Unexceptional.

12/11/2022

Emotions are powerful sensations and can often feel beyond your control. However, actions - or what you do, play a major role in maintaining, intensifying, or even reducing an emotional reaction.

Feelings are not facts (but they want you to believe that they are). You can't stop yourself from having a reaction or feeling an emotion to something; however, you can choose how you respond to it.
So when you notice yourself jumping into action based on a feeling, take a moment and examine how you're responding.
.. Are you believing the feeling at face value and seeing it as fact?.. Are you judging the feeling and yourself for having the feeling?.. Are you examining the feeling in context of other information before taking action?

10/11/2022

Do you feel overwhelmed by things you need to do during the day?

Perhaps you forget things you need to do, and then anxiety kicks in?

A to-do list can help ease your overwhelm and anxiety To-do lists enable you to break down your goals and tasks into achievable activities. At the same time, writing them down allows you to manage your time better and encourages you to work more efficiently throughout your day.

09/11/2022

Mindset impacts your beliefs about situations.
A scarcity mindset is grounded in limitations, fear, and pessimism - the belief that limited opportunities or resources are available.

An abundance mindset is grounded in opportunities, hopefulness, and optimism.
When approaching yourself or situations with a scarcity mindset, you're likely to feel pretty restricted in your thinking and problem-solving ability. Alternatively, with an abundance mindset, you're likely to consider more creative options and focus using a more expanded perspective.

When shifting from scarcity to abundance, begin by examining your thoughts and challenging them little by little. Review these examples and look for one you can focus on this week- and then notice moments in which scarcity shows up and get curious. Allow yourself to consider the alternative, abundant mindset. And notice how you feel - what changes for you?

Do you use more scarcity thinking or abundance thinking?

05/11/2022

Just a little reminder that being the bigger person doesn't mean unconditionally tolerating disrespectful behavior. It's about respectfully communicating your feelings, readjusting your expectations, and setting clear boundaries.

You do not need to forgive, forget, fake smile or bury the hatchet to make other people comfortable

When it comes to your trauma, your experience, and what YOU went through, you can hang onto it for as long as you want. You ARE ALLOWED to sit with your rage, anger, bitterness, resentment and sadness for as long as it takes for YOU to move on and begin to heal.
If you want to be the bigger person, go for it!
But if you're not there yet, or if you don't think you'll ever get there..
That is okay too.

19/10/2022

All parents enter into the bliss of parenthood with euphemistic notions of rosy parent-child relationships and family bonding. While some of us are aware of what constitutes a healthy relationship, be it with a child or an adult, many of us are clueless of the subconscious patterns of control, abuse, and dysfunction that exist in families around us, sometimes, even our own.

As much as it is important to make sure our child is eating healthy, achieving developmental milestones, it is also imperative as parents to be aware of negative patterns we may subconsciously foster in our relationships with our children. This awareness will also lend us valuable empathy towards others around us who may be battling such situations with their children in their lives.

17/10/2022

If you or someone you know has been through emotional abuse or mistreatment, they may display a lot of the characteristics listed above.
Mental abuse is insidious. It creeps in, settling inside your mind and can stay there for decades. You might find it coming out in the fawning response where you're constantly tip-toeing around everyone, trying to placate, appease, constantly apologising and desperate for assurance, or it may manifest in trust issues, hypersensitivity or anger.
The abuse that you endured should NEVER have happened.. Please know that once you start surrounding yourself with empathetic, kind people and opening up about what you've been through in a safe environment, it will have less of a hold on you -
that negative internal commentary that was taught to you by your abuser will get quieter and quieter until hopefully, one day,
it will cease to exist altogether.

15/10/2022

Mental illnesses, also called mental health disorders, refer to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors amongst several others.

Examples of signs and symptoms include:

- Feeling excessively sad or down
- Confused thinking or reduced ability to concentrate
- Excessive fears or worries, or extreme feelings of guilt
- Extreme mood changes of highs and lows
- Withdrawal from friends and activities
- Significant tiredness, low energy or problems sleeping
- Detachment from reality (delusions), paranoia or hallucinations
- Inability to cope with daily problems or stress
- Trouble understanding and relating to situations and to people
- Problems with alcohol or drug use
- Major changes in eating habits
- S*x drive extremes
- Excessive anger, hostility or violence
- Suicidal thinking

Dr. Shwetambara Sabharwal