Cognitive distancing is the realization that we're not looking at the world through the lens of certain beliefs or opinions. R&T Beck used to explain it to his clients using the following metaphor. He'd say, imagine that you're wearing rose-tinted glasses. The key thing is normally these two things get fused together. You see the house as pink but when you take the glasses off, you separate the layer. It's almost a bit like if you were to step to one side and observe yourself holding a belief. If that makes sense.