Overcoming Attention Biases 45
with who you really are. The need to evaluate your actions
and feelings according to certain standards causes you dis-
tress because you don’t think you are able to meet those
standards.
This judgmental stance toward your internal thoughts
inevitably gives rise to a variety of responses and reactions.
During your presentation, judging your fear as bad or some-
thing negative leads you to attempt to rigidly control or hide
your emotions. Second- order reactions, or reactions that
you have in response to your initial emotions, cause you to
get stuck or fixated on your current experience, thereby pre-
venting you from attending freely to the present moment.
Reactive thoughts prevent you from “getting out of your
head,” as you continue to dwell on your current circum-
stances. The need to react to your emotions stems from a
belief that certain emotions are undesirable or that they may
be harmful to your moment- to- moment experiences.
The important thing to note about adopting a judgmen-
tal and reactive approach toward negative feelings, such as
anxiety, is that it does more harm than good. It prevents you
from accomplishing your goals, and it leads to excessive dis-
tress. To further clarify the importance of how paying atten-
tion to your emotions inf luences your overall anxiety, it’s
important that we distinguish between helpful and harmful
forms of attention.
The ability to observe your thoughts and emotions is a
defining human characteristic. The meaning you attach to
your observations of your thoughts and emotions shapes
your subjective experience to a great degree. Imagine that
one of your friends drags you to a social engagement attended
by people you have never met. Although your friend assures