Note: MBTI and Schemas are just mental wiring that is long lasting. I don't view it as a self.
I'm tuning into consciousness regularly but there are still habit formations that need to be dealt with by doing differently despite rigid schemas that might takeover. The typical schemas are Abandonment/Instability, Mistrust/Abuse, Emotional Deprivation, Defectiveness/Shame, Social Isolation/Alienation, Dependence/Incompetence, Vulnerability to harm or illness, Enmeshment/Undeveloped self, Failure, Entitlement/Grandiosity, Insufficient Self-Control/Self-Discipline). Failure is the biggest schema I have to deal with, though I'm sure that everyone has a little bit of everything one time or another in their lives. The difficulty is that in the past I would equate Failure = Performance = Self-worth. The correct way I should be thinking is Failure = Performance and no more. There are also other beliefs that I don't believe in but still animate me from habit. That is the fear of success. I've always hated the envy of others and found it so bothersome whenever I succeeded at anything. Even just simply walking home with a pizza box from a restaurant is enough to have some people comment "Oh! Is that pizza? MMMMM" in an addictive almost hostile way, and that used to drive me up the wall. Now other people's envy doesn't bother me as much but the past botherings created a habit of avoidance because I don't want to have to deal with the consequences of showing pleasure/enjoyment/happiness in front of others. I don't want to deal with romantic relationships that will tend in the addictiveness -> envy -> hostility direction either. Yet in order to function properly and not be isolated I have to stoically face these weird, confused, and possibly dangerous people.
I know I haven't achieved stream-entry in the classical sense of fading senses up to the 8th jhana and letting go effort in a Shikantaza mode and losing the consciousness aggregate briefly. I do know that consciousness is impermanent so there are no beliefs that thoughts can glom onto as being "consciousness". I feel there is no self in my entire experience precisely because consciousness just KNOWS (with zero personality characteristics) and that's there all the time when I'm awake. Again I have to make it clear. People should just look at an object to register that the object is being known right now to really see what a mental note should be. This knowing can note anything that hits consciousness and doesn't require verbal word noting which could turn into a disassociated meditator thought concept that is fixated over objects (which means stress). You could be in an embarrassing situation and the consciousness passively knows this. It's the thoughts that create the commentary which will make you feel good or bad depending on whether you like or dislike the thought.
This morning I just laid in bed tuning to what consciousness knows which to me IS meditation and can be done all day. The thoughts rush at you and like Daniel says as they pretend in a child like way to be all the things that consciousness perceives. It's even a little dreamlike and bullshit in the way it does it. In my mind (much like a visual movie projection on a screen of consciousness/knowing) I briefly saw a waiter stare at me in dramatic seriousness in some outdoor bistro environment and say "you need to go do that!". My brain just laughed thinking "what the fuck is that shit?" So one thought formation was able to laugh at another one. The second thought that was laughing was also known to consciousness and even though it seemed to have a gravitas of a self more than the dream like apparition it was still known nonetheless. That gravitas is starting to remind me of what Nick talks about in terms of emotional "weight". That's why tuning into consciousness with as much continuity as possible is so important and an entire day of being with what is known while getting on with your life will do more than small sits each day.
It's true that the mind goes off in thoughts sometimes for an extended period but that's okay. It's the old comfortable habits that cause the problem and that can rear their heads even if you've meditated a lot and have many moments of peace. In order to change behaviours after the stress is gone requires more action to create new wiring to develop useful skills which will be needed no matter how unaddicted a person can get.
Failure Schema:
Behavioural pattern-breaking is the longest, and in some ways, the most crucial part of schema therapy. Without it, relapse is likely. Even if patients have insight into their Early maladaptive Schemas, and even if they have done the cognitive and experiential work, their schemas will reassert themselves if patients do not change their behavioural patterns.
Patients set goals, set graded tasks to meet them, and then carry out the tasks as homework assignments. The therapist helps patients overcome blocks to completing the homework. If it is a skills problem, the therapist helps the patient develop skills. If it is an aptitude problem, the therapist helps the patient switch to more appropriate work. If it is an anxiety problem, the therapist teaches the patient anxiety management. If it is a problem with self-discipline, the therapist helps the patient create a structure to overcome procrastination and to build discipline.
Goals:
The central goal of treatment is to help patients feel and become as successful as their peers (within the limits of their abilities and talents). This usually involves one of three scenarios. The first is increasing their level of success by building skills and confidence.
Strategies:
If patients actually have failed relative to peers, then the most important cognitive strategy is to challenge the view that they are inherently inept and to reattribute their failure to schema perpetuation. These patients have not failed because they are inherently inept, but rather because they have inadvertently acted to defeat their attempts to succeed.
Experiential techniques can be helpful in preparing patients to undertake behavioral change. In imagery, patients relive failure experiences from the past and express anger at the people who discouraged them, or mocked and devalued them for failing. Often, the person was a parent, older sibling, or teacher. Doing this helps patients reattribute the failure to the other person’s criticalness rather than to their own lack of ability.
Experiential techniques help the patient identify this theme and relate to it emotionally. Getting angry with the Undermining Parent helps the patient understand that this was an unhealthy message, and one that the patient need no longer believe. Healthy parents do not punish their children for succeeding. Getting angry can help patients fight the view that people will reject them if they are too successful.
The behavioral part of the treatment is usually the most important. No matter how much progress patients make in the other areas, if they do not stop their maladaptive coping behaviors, they are going to keep reinforcing the schema. The therapist helps patients replace behaviors that surrender to, avoid, or overcompensate for the schema, with more adaptive behaviors. Patients set goals, set graded tasks to meet them, and then carry out the tasks as homework assignments. The therapist helps patients overcome blocks to completing the homework. If it is a skills problem, the therapist helps the patient develop skills. If it is an aptitude problem, the therapist helps the patient switch to more appropriate work. If it is an anxiety problem, the therapist teaches the patient anxiety management. If it is a problem with self-discipline, the therapist helps the patient create a structure to overcome procrastination and to build discipline.
The basic idea is that between the impulse and the action, patients must learn to insert thought. They must learn to think through the consequences of giving in to the impulse before acting it out.