Mental Brakes to Avoid Mental Breaks | Steven Hayes | TEDxDavidsonAcademy

Human beings have the biological equivalent of a sports car

between their ears.

And it’s wonderful that we have this device.

Our ability to reason and problem solve; to plan, predict, evaluate, abstract,

or create is the envy of the rest of living creation.

But you would not jump into a fast sports car

and jam on the accelerator if somebody hadn’t told you

where the brakes are and how to apply them.

And this mind of ours, at times, takes us in the wrong direction.

And when it’s doing that,

we have to know how to slow it down and to put on those brakes.

And it’s not obvious where that is.

Our temptation is to put on the brakes by jamming on the accelerator

and swerving back and forth really fast.

But it turns out the brakes are in an entirely different area.

I’m giving this talk at a TEDx that’s sponsored by the Davidson Academy,

which is one of the treasures of the U.S.,

a school for the gifted and talented,

where young people who have IQs at the 99.9th percentile or above are educated.

And so I know I’m looking at people, who over the next years,

are going to make a profound difference to human society, very likely.

But I’m also a clinical psychologist.

And I know that I’m looking at people who are going to suffer.

I know that I’m looking at people

who are going to have thoughts come up very close like,

“You’re not lovable,” or, “Life’s not livable.”

Like, “There’s something wrong with you.”

"Deep down you’re bad" or, "You’re mean," or, "You should be ashamed."

Or, "You need to figure out a way to run from that painful rejection,"

or betrayal or that traumatic thing that happened to you.

And when that happens, I don’t care how smart you are,

you’re going to need to know how to put on the mental brakes.

And what I want to share with you is the surprising science

of where those brakes are.

For the last 30 years, I and my colleagues

have been studying language and cognition through the filter,

through the lens, of a theory called Relational Frame Theory, or RFT;

a perspective I developed decades ago,

and the applied extension of that into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT,