PBT in Portugal

As I type, Martin Marion and our colleague, educationalist Gay Jones, are in Coimbra, Portugal, preparing to present a paper on the use of Pause Button Therapy within weight loss. They are at the first ever International Time Perspective Conference, which is all about people's views/perceptions of time and the importance of it in their lives (often to do with decision making). A simple example or two: Do you floss your teeth? Why? Probably because of one or two reasons. Your dentist has told you to, your parents told you to and you still do, and/or you know that without flossing there's a chance your teeth won't last you into old age. That's future thinking. You really don't NEED to floss your teeth for TODAY - well not unless you've just eaten pineapple or a tough piece of pork, anyway!..... and PAST doesn't come into this one because that's all about considering that things will be the way they always have so why do anything too fundamental to change them (paraphrasing). But if you are thinking of your dental hygiene now to plan for say 10 or 20 years down the line, well that's future thinking. On the other hand you may floss BUT have to floss because you've just eaten a whole packet of doughnuts. That's definitely PRESENT thinking; if you thought of the future you might have given more weight to the knowledge that fat, sugar, e-numbers et al aren't really terribly good for maintaining a healthy body at a healthy weight. So put the two concepts together and then wind round them the theory that how you view your past is also fundamental.... if you remember it as unhappy, you'll possibly predict an unhappy future etc..... and that's what Time Perspective Theory is. Weight Loss requires a clear understanding of and acceptance of, and adoption of, future thinking. Of course that's only one application of PBT: anger management, addressing addictive behaviours, road rage, all these uses for PBT and many more actually have roots in understanding time perspective. Consequences, after all, are what happens somewhere down the line (ie in the future) as a result of your actions now, in the PRESENT. Which reminds me. I had a cup of tea earlier. Need the bathroom. Need another cup of tea!! Saludos Fiona