According to a research, when people adopt a self-distanced perspective while discussing a difficult event, they make better sense of their reactions, experience less emotional distress, and display fewer physiological signs of stress.
Self-distancing seems to lead to more productive and 'adaptive self-reflection' while processing negative experiences.
Studies with children and adolescents suggest that self-distancing helps both age groups to move away from the trap of recounting emotionally activating details and toward reconstructing a distressing event in a way that provides some insight and closure.
Want to know the benefits of self-distancing? Here are a few points that can help you.
* See from a third person's view
Results from a recent study revealed the power of mentally injecting a model into the difficult context. When five-year-olds envisioned Batman in the middle of a distressing situation and asked themselves, 'What would Batman do?,' they were able to self-distance more effectively.
* Don't use 'I'
Focus on using third-person pronouns—he, she, they—when engaging in self-talk. This simple shift in language may be the most helpful form of self-distancing.
* Note it down
Writers who demonstrated a self-distanced perspective also used fewer first-person pronouns and negative-emotion words while including more causation words, such as 'because' or 'why,' in their writing.
Create a personally meaningful narrative that helps you to 'step back' and make sense of a negative event.
* Focus on the future
A new area of research in self-distancing explores the power of temporal distancing. Ask yourself, 'How would I feel about this one week from now or ten years from now?'
This form of mental time travel may be effective because our attention is directed away from our immediate, concrete circumstances.
Courtesy: advice.shinetext.com
