Overcoming Attention Biases 47
symptom of anxiety) becomes problematic only if you judge
it to be a disastrous symptom that proves you are too anxious
to successfully negotiate the social situation. By not think-
ing of it as such, you won’t feel a strong need to react to these
sensations (for example, by crossing your arms to “hide”
physical symptoms of anxiety or taking deep breaths to slow
your heartbeat). The perceived need to react to anxious
thoughts or bodily sensations convinces you that there’s a
threat or that you must be in total control of yourself to be
successful, which isn’t true.
Adopting a nonreactive stance by letting go of the need
to react to negative thoughts or to be in control of a racing
heart enables you to devote your attention to more relevant
things, such as the actual conversation you are having with
this new acquaintance. The basic idea behind the mindful
approach toward attention is that a nonjudgmental and non-
reactive way of perceiving anxiety- provoking experiences
prevents you from confirming unhelpful beliefs about your
own abilities and the presence of a threat. Figure 2.1 illus-
trates a basic model of mindful attention that embodies
many of the concepts we have discussed so far.
W hen we consider the impact of attention on symptoms
of anxiety, we must acknowledge the importance of two
factors: (a) under what conditions attention negatively inf lu-
ences anxiety and (b) how attention causes changes in
anxiety. The former concept we have discussed already:
when people are overly reactive toward internal and external
experiences, their anxiety and tension increase. But how
does this occur? W hat processes are responsible for the
effect of attention on distress? Figure 2.1 provides a frame-
work for answering these questions.