Metacognition is happening so often that most of us hardly even notice it. Have you ever been reading and noticed your mind has wandered? Choosing to refocus on your book is a classic example of metacognition. It’s the process of thinking about your own thoughts, and it comes in handy in all areas of life.
Work, school, relationships, and mental health are all shaped by metacognitive skills, so those skills are worth developing. For example, if you improve your metacognition, you may be better able to challenge anxious thoughts. Similarly, reflecting on conflicts and misunderstandings in your relationships is often part of mental health recovery. This draws on metacognition, as well as mentalization, which is a closely related concept.
This article will explore:
Put simply, metacognition is the process of thinking about your own thinking. We all use metacognitive skills in everyday life.[1] Many of these are automatic, such as noticing that you’ve misspoken, stopping yourself from giving an incorrect answer in class, or adjusting your attention elsewhere.[2] Other metacognitive skills take conscious effort. These are the ones you can actively initiate, and include:[2]
More concrete examples of metacognition include:[2][3]
While we all use metacognitive skills every day, we don’t often think about how important they are. Usually, they’re talked about in the context of education and academia because of how metacognition relates to:
For example, improving metacognition can also improve critical thinking skills, which are essential in academic work.[1]
However, building your cognitive awareness and metacognitive skills can also do a great deal for your well-being, mental health, and relationships. For example, the ability to challenge an overly harsh inner critic can help someone overcome low self-esteem.
Before we share strategies for improving metacognition, we’ll first explore how increasing this kind of self-awareness relates to mental health and relationships.
Having an understanding of the ways our minds work opens the way to better mental health and relationships. To help demonstrate this, here is a comparison:
We all have a vague and almost innate understanding of our immune systems. We wash our hands, clean our homes, and avoid food that’s clearly gone bad. We do these things because we understand, if only on a basic level, how our immune systems work.[3]
Similarly, an understanding of how our minds work can give us tools to take care of our emotional health.[3] As we’ll explore, these tools include not jumping to conclusions, challenging the beliefs we have about our mental activity, and not equating our feelings with reality.
Before we discuss these tools in greater depth, it helps to see how metacognition and mentalization (a similar concept) influence mental health.
Metacognitions, the thoughts someone has about their own thoughts, can perpetuate the symptoms of a mental health condition. For example:[4]
These examples demonstrate that any personal growth and mental health treatment process should involve examining the thoughts someone has about their mental activity. In this way, becoming more reflective about your metacognition is an essential stepping stone to challenging distressing thought patterns and improving well-being.
While metacognition helps us understand and respond to our own thoughts, good mental health is also dependent on how we relate to other people.
This is where mentalization, a similar concept, becomes important. Mentalization is also concerned with thinking about thinking, but it includes thinking about the thoughts of other people, not just your own.[2]
Being able to mentalize means the ability to understand and imagine your own mental state (thoughts, feelings, desires, and intentions), as well as those of others. It’s a crucial skill for social interactions, reflection, and empathy, and is closely linked with metacognition.[5]
Mentalization and metacognition often work in tandem. For instance, if you’re at a party and the person you’re talking to frowns, you might have the thought, “They’re not enjoying my company.” Metacognition helps you recognize that you’re making an assumption that feeds into your social anxiety; mentalization helps you see there are other possible explanations for that person’s frown.
If someone is finding it hard to mentalize under stress, they’re likely to:
A lack of mentalization is seen in many mental health conditions and is thought to be a risk factor for developing one. Experts also suggest that trauma in childhood, particularly abuse and neglect, interferes with the development of mentalization and social cognition skills.[5]
If someone struggles with both metacognition and mentalization, they’re likely to have more difficulty understanding themselves and others. Since the symptoms of mental health conditions so frequently emerge in relation to other people, these skills are crucial for:
Without good metacognition and mentalization skills, someone is more likely to misinterpret the intentions of others, become trapped in worry and rumination, and mistake thoughts for facts.
AMFM is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Increasing emotional awareness, executive function, and self-reflection is absolutely possible. You’ll find many approaches to improving both metacognition and mentalization that you can use in your daily life or practice with the help of psychotherapy.[4][6][7]
Coming back to our immune system analogy, these tools and strategies can become daily habits, like washing your hands, that support your well-being and relationships.
Here are some top strategies for improving metacognition:
Thought to increase memory and metacognitive awareness, mindfulness meditation is a powerful way to improve metacognition. This is because it allows you to give greater attention to your mental landscape and exercise greater control over it.[2][8]
The act of mindfully observing your own thoughts has been called reperceiving, which is when your perspective changes. Instead of your thoughts automatically feeling like they belong to you, reperceiving holds them as separate from you, which makes you more flexible in the face of your mental experiences. In contrast, a state of mindlessness is one where you overly identify with your thoughts and react without challenging them.[8]
In addition, some experts suggest that mindfulness meditation may help people make deeper contact with their unconscious thoughts.[8]
Other skills you can develop to improve metacognition are informed by metacognitive therapy (MCT). This is a type of mental health treatment that aims to help reflect on and challenge thoughts.[4]
As well as taking part in MCT sessions, you can also draw on its methods in your personal life to improve your metacognitive skills without a professional. For example, you could try to:[4]
Another area of psychotherapy with useful tools for improving metacognitive skills is mentalization-based therapy (MBT). In contrast to MCT, MBT has a greater focus on your emotions and relationships with other people.
As before, you don’t have to have mentalization-based therapy to benefit from its techniques. Though these strategies are practiced with a counselor or therapist, you can still try to implement them in your personal life. Skills and strategies from MBT include:[6][7]
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As mentioned, the skills and strategies suggested in this article stem from well-established psychotherapeutic approaches, which aim to deepen your self-insight and provide a kind of cognitive rehabilitation. While they can certainly be practiced without a professional, they also feature in formal therapy for metacognition.
If you’re dealing with anxious or depressive thoughts, relationship conflict, or low self-esteem, therapy that challenges your metacognition can be very helpful. At AMFM (A Mission For Michael) Mental Health Treatment, we offer an intimate, focused mental health treatment experience for adults in home-like settings that are carefully maintained to be peaceful, comfortable spaces.
We provide the full spectrum of care, including residential treatment and multiple levels of outpatient treatment programs. While we don’t offer metacognitive or mentalization-based therapy specifically, we do have a range of evidence-based therapies that focus on challenging, reflecting on, and reframing thoughts. Our team of expert clinicians believes in treatment persistence and will personalize your treatment plan so you can achieve lasting, life-changing outcomes.
Our locations in California, Minnesota, and Virginia accept insurance and are in-network with most major providers. To check your insurance coverage for mental health care, simply complete our confidential online verification form or call us at 866-478-4383.
Reach out to us if you would like to start the admissions process or learn more about how we can support your mental well-being. Our compassionate team is available 24/7 to answer your questions and provide guidance with no obligation.
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