I made a goal this year to read at least one book a month. Coronavirus kind of hindered that goal, I've read about three books so far. The current book I'm reading is called "Don't Overthink It" by Anne Bogel. The author basically is me in a nutshell. The last chapter I read was about intrusive thoughts and how much it can consume you. The author used the following suggestion to treat your mind "as you would a private garden and as careful as possible about what you introduce and allow to grow there".
I really connected with that statement. Too many times, we let our thoughts manifest in the "garden" of our minds and don't pay attention to what is harvesting there. For me personally, my garden is full of weeds that I should really be tending too.
It is incredibly difficult to shut off my negative thinking. It is a comfortable cycle that I've been used to since I was a kid. What is the cure? My therapist this past week mentioned how we have the power to stop it ourselves (really? because if it was THAT easy I would have stopped doing it years ago.). The secret I found, was to come up with strategies to deflect them. For example, I was in a clothing store waiting in line for the register, and some random person just cut me off in line (like, HELLO DID YOU NOT SEE ME STANDING HERE?!). I was so angry. I could have yelled at her and told her to get in the back of the line but instead, I just let it go. I thought to myself, you know what, maybe she honestly did not see me and did not mean to do that. It may very well have not been the truth but for me, I turned a negative experience into a positive. I was not going to let this woman ruin my day.
This is one of my strategies to cope with negative thoughts, but the book also lists several other methods:
- Pay attention to your thoughts
- Consider a different point of view
- Brush it aside, for now
- Ignore invalid or unhelpful thoughts
- Schedule time to overthink
- Write it down (I do this too, obviously)
- Distract yourself
- Move your body to move your mind (This is a BIG one for me, exercise helps me a lot)
We don't have to be stuck in this constant hamster wheel! There is hope, however, you can't get off the wheel without putting a little work in first. I'd love to hear what you do to help cope with your anxious thoughts. Comment below!
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