An individual's capacity for decentering can be increased through the establishment of mindfulness practice. Mindfulness promotes reliable and enduring alterations in basal neural activity and connectivity, and these neurological shifts may account for clinical improvements associated with MBIs.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Decentering — particularly when utilized in mindfulness-based interventions — represents a metacognitive capacity thought to reflect three processes that are interconnected: meta-awareness, disidentification from internal experience, and reduced reactivity to thought content. These three neurobehavioral processes have been found to reliably increase with the use of MBI.

Decentering as a Metacognitive Capacity

King, A. P., & Fresco, D. M. (2019). A neurobehavioral account for decentering as the salve for the distressed mind. Current opinion in psychology, 28, 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.02.009

A neurobehavioral account for decentering as the salve for the distressed mind


Mindfulness and an Increased Capacity for Decentering

Disidentification refers to the capacity for creating psychological distance from internal states, helping people to regard their thoughts, emotions, and sensations as passing mental phenomena that is not necessarily true and not necessarily identical to one’s self. Disidentification helps to moderate the innately human tendency to mind-wander in a self-immersed state experiencing spontaneous internal thoughts such as self-appraisals of the static self.

Disidentification 

The psychological distancing in disidentification is proposed to facilitate reduced reactivity to negative thoughts so that they are less likely to trigger stronger negative emotional reactions and negative self-conscious or depressive rumination. Improved meta-awareness of spontaneous negative thoughts that could trigger a cycle of rumination or worry, used in
conjunction with increased capacity for disidentification, might underlie the ability of MBIs to decrease negative rumination in people with distress disorders.

Reduced Reactivity to Thought Content

The practice of mindfulness meditation on a repetitive basis leads to enduring increases in baseline activity and connectivity that extend to an individual's non-meditating state and attention networks, particularly in formerly meditation-naïve people. Working to increase one's meta-awareness is an essential aspect of decentering that may underlie an increased capacity for meta-awareness not only during the practice of meditation, but also in daily life.

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