Learn Techniques to Improve Your Internal Dialogue with the Metacognitive Healing Methodology

What is Metacognition?

Before we dive into the Metacognitive Healing Methodology…🤔 Have you ever stopped to think about how you think? 💭 The ability to reflect on and understand your own mental processes is known as metacognition. Being aware of your own thought process enables informed decisions about your own learning and development.

🔎 Explore the concept of metacognition in more depth in this article.

What is the Metacognitive Healing Methodology?

Limitless teaches the Metacognitive Healing Methodology, which evokes awareness of your thought processes and supports you in understanding the patterns behind them, by naturally altering your state of consciousness. Simply put, the Metacognitive Healing Methodology puts you in the driver’s seat of your thoughts so you can confidently them in healthy and productive ways.

Where do thoughts
come from?

Spontaneous thoughts often arise from the unconscious mind, drawing on fragments of phrases, images, and ideas stored in long-term memory. These same processes are also thought to contribute to the content of our dreams. (1) (2) (3). Basically, everything you’ve ever experienced impacts the way you think, and over time these thoughts create patterns. Sometimes these thought processes are helpful, while other times they are unhelpful. Are your thoughts processes productive or are they weighing you down?

There are two metacognitive processes that activate thinking patterns.

"Positive" Metacognition

“Positive” metacognition includes thought processes that lead the mindset toward helpful solutions.

For example: “Thinking this through is helping me assess the situation and respond in a way I’ll be proud of.”

"Negative" Metacognition

“Negative” metacognition is is often unhelpful, uncontrolled, pervasive, and harmful.

For example: “This is out of my control. I am the way I am. There’s nothing I can do to improve my situation.”

How Does Metacognition Impact Mental Health?

Scientists have studied the role of metacognition in mental health since the 1970s. In a recent study, evidence from fMRI results showed that repetitive negative thinking plays an important role in anxiety and depression. You can see it in a brain scan; your thoughts leave a physical impression that you can see in an image.

When approaching mental health problems, from a metacognitive perspective, Cognitive Attention Syndrome (CAS) is a feature underlying all depressive and anxiety disorders. Metacognition concerns itself with the thinking behind the thought patterns.CAS is a repetitive negative thinking pattern that leads to unhelpful behavior and cognition such as worrying and brooding, backfiring coping strategies, and excessive rumination.

You can learn new patterns of thinking, as you can any concept, which creates new neural pathways in your brain.

* Resource from 1 in 4 statement

Seeking Metacognitive Shifts

People seek altered states of consciousness, or a change in mental state, in a variety of ways. This includes grand sensory experiences. Some examples include:

• Movement
• Breathwork
• ‍Meditation‍
• Cannabis
• Adventure
• Laughter
• Orgasm
• Psychedelics

We find it important to acknowledge that there are many daily common experiences that create altered states of consciousness like sleeping, daydreaming, and euphoria.

Cognitive harm reduction begins with empathy and understanding, recognizing that individuals may seek altered states of consciousness for a variety of reasons and that promoting safety and reducing harm can be a more effective approach than legally over-restricting some of these experiences.”

📚 Read more about altered states here.

The Power of Metacognition in Overcoming Mental Health Challenges

Metacognition has emerged as a promising approach to addressing a range of mental health challenges, from anxiety and depression to PTSD and substance abuse disorders. The Metacognitive Healing MethodologyTM is a specific approach that emphasizes identifying and modifying maladaptive thinking patterns, and developing more constructive and adaptive ways of thinking.

The key to the Metacognitive Healing Methodology is to help individuals identify their own thinking patterns, understand how those patterns contribute to their emotional states, and learn strategies to modify them in a positive way. By developing greater self-awareness and self-regulation, individuals are able to break free from negative thought cycles and improve their mental health outcomes.

Research has shown that metacognitive approaches can be highly effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders (5) (6) (7). By helping individuals to develop greater self-awareness and self-regulation, the Limitless app can be a powerful tool for promoting mental health and well-being.