Breaking out of Hyper-Anxious States with 6Rs and AFERR

Breaking out of Hyper-Anxious States with 6Rs and AFERR

This experience of Vipassana is so different from my first time. The first one brought me in touch with the sensations in my body. I was able to scan my body for formations and in that process discovered some critical ones that needed resolution. In this one however, the focus is on loving kindness. But that's not the end in itself. Loving kindness is a gateway for you to discover your own inner challenges and processes that hinder and keep you from progressing in life.

Many of us are stuck in our habitual routines that prevent us from seeing beyond. The practice of Samatha-Vipassana uses a compassionate approach towards your discomforts. When we sit for long periods, our body begins to manifest signs of fatigue, discomfort and pain. Our response to how we deal with pain is one of the areas where the insights lie. This is also a good time for me to say, this meditation is centered around learning and insights and not simply reaching equanimity.

Left alone in the wilderness of your mind, you're bound to get lost and even frustrated. This is one of the big reasons people don't meditate. It's too much -too much confusion, too much pain. All with too little guidance. But how can you be guided on something that's such an internal process?

Thankfully the Buddha has left us some wonderful wisdom to follow. Coupled with the modern understanding of late Bhante Vimalaramsi and the careful guidance of his direct disciple Bhante Dhammagavesi, a banker at Citi Bank turned Buddhist Monk, the 6Rs is a powerful framework for navigating complex and unruly emotions.

After discovering AFERR (read the full paper at: aferr.org), I've been searching for a path to break old cognitive patterns to adopt new behavior. The 6Rs is a tried and tested method that I can personally vouch for. AFERR indicates that the human cognition moves through a series of processes, sometimes in micro/nano seconds and sometimes across much longer periods of time. The process starts with Activation -often a result of a trigger when any of our senses make contact with an object. Activation translates in the human experience as an emotion. I've deeply examined human emotion for over 10 years through various methodologies like Human Process Labs and, as a fellow human, I'm sure you too can understand that the nature of our emotion can cause us to divert and spin-out in all kinds of directions. Yet, we all have a pattern.

Returning to AFERR: Activation causes us to Forecast. Forecasting manifests as a thought in the human experience. When we experience a strong enough emotion, we are forced to think. We think about the past, we think about the future and sometimes about the present. We either think: "I don't want to be feeling this way" or "I want to continue feeling this way". The very nature of our forecasting has dimensions, just like Activation has a range of emotions and their intensity. We forecast across three spectrums:

1. Optimism and caution

2. Past - Present - Future

3. Near term - Long term

Forecasting is yet an intermediary step towards the next cognitive process: Experimentation.

With "sufficient" forecasting, we attempt to move into action. Where the brain wants to experiment with the forecast to Realize the outcome. AFERR is a well-researched model based on nearly 20,000 experiments and over 50,000 participants. Here's a quick reference to see how AFERR manifests itself in the human experience.

AFERR

Activation : Feeling

Forecasting : Thinking

Experimentation : Doing

Realization : Sensing/Sense-making

Reflection : Integrating

In our experience of working with behavior change, we have seen people get stuck in bad-equilibriums and one of the prominent ones is the 'Activation-Forecasting' loop. This can cause hyperactivation which may manifest itself on a spectrum that includes anxiety and depression. The 6Rs is a simple yet powerful tool to navigate the complexity of the endless loop. 

 Let's take a look at the 6Rs:

- Recognize (acknowledge)

- Release (disengage)

- Relax (neutralize/disarm)

- Re-Smile (reframe)

- Return (reorient)

- Repeat (if/when necessary)

This method stops the dysfunctional Activation-Forecasting loop right in its tracks by allowing you an opportunity to holistically Forecast and physically Experiment. You begin by recognizing a rising emotion and determine to release it without giving it the fuel it needs to survive -your attention. You then bring your attention to what it does in your body and relax your tense muscles. This seemingly small, yet immensely important step is critical in taking a process that has been cognitive all this while and giving it physicality - what we would call Experimentation in AFERR. We then smile to engage the neurocircuitry and fire off a series of connected neurons that are associated with sense-making and control. Think about what typically makes you smile -an event that you have previously made positive sense of -Realization. With the core AFER cycle complete, you have helped your brain successfully navigate out of the heaviness of a dysfunctional Activation-Forecasting loop. And you are ready to return to your task at hand and repeat when necessary.

The 6Rs is a deeply liberating approach that is also surprisingly neuro-informed. It has worked for (thousands?) of people who have applied it and continue to benefit from. If you're like me who tends to overthink and overanalyze everything, learning the 6Rs is the path to cognitive freedom by putting you back in the driver seat of your mind.

I highly urge you to explore Bhante Dhammagavesi's meditation retreats in which he guides you through the understanding and application of the 6Rs.The practical program gives you the time and space needed to deepen the understanding of your own mind and take away tools to deal with anxiety provoking situations we are prone to encounter on a daily basis. Learn more about physical retreats