How Do I Get Rid Of My Intrusive Thoughts?
When you have an unwanted or intrusive thought, the worst thing you can do is to try to push it away.
All that happens is that it becomes excited because you're paying it attention, and that's just what it thrives on.
"Well, how do I get rid of my intrusive thoughts?" Invite them further into your head, as it were, and then analyze them.
Sit down and in effect take them out of your head and have a good look at them.
In fact, you can imagine yourself doing just that.
'Right,' you can say to yourself.
'You're so keen on causing me all this grief, let's see if you're worth it.
' The first thing you can ask the individual thought is whether or not there's anything you can do about it.
Let's say you've been watching a preacher on television and he's frightened the life out of you by prophecying doom and gloom for all of us.
By the way, if this is the sort of thing that worries you, remember that these preachers would be out of a job very quickly if they painted rosy pictures of our future.
I won't start on that subject, but it's worth bearing in mind.
But if he's thundered about being taken over by a foreign power, or we're going to have earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and goodness knows what, is there anything you can do about any of this? No, there isn't, so why worry about things you can't change? So simply flick the thought away because it's pointless.
I know I used to be one of those people who, if I wasn't worried about anything, which was very rare, I'd worry that I'd missed something I should be worried about! These days, I seldom worry, simply because if I can't do anything about a concern, then it'll happen or not whether I worry or not! In my experience, this is the most powerful way of stopping these thoughts dead in their tracks.
If you're worried about something and you can do something about it, then fine.
Do something and rid yourself of the worry.
The chances are, though, that these thoughts pop into your head without any rhyme or reason.
Now, I'm not saying it's easy to stop yourself becoming anxious and worrying about all manner of things.
Further, you may well have resigned yourself long ago to the fact that you're a 'born worrier.
' You aren't! Anxiety due to worrying is learned behaviour and anything that you've learned, you can un-learn.
This worrying habit's probably been with you most of your life, so don't expect to switch it off as you would a light switch.
So let's re-cap.
1.
Whenever you catch yourself worrying and you're full of anxiety about something, take it out of your head, have a look at it and see whether it's worth your time.
2.
Can you do anything about it? No? Then why bother worrying.
3.
Find something absorbing to do.
Something that'll help take your mind off the worry.
Really work at those three ideas, and your worries will soon be things of the past!
All that happens is that it becomes excited because you're paying it attention, and that's just what it thrives on.
"Well, how do I get rid of my intrusive thoughts?" Invite them further into your head, as it were, and then analyze them.
Sit down and in effect take them out of your head and have a good look at them.
In fact, you can imagine yourself doing just that.
'Right,' you can say to yourself.
'You're so keen on causing me all this grief, let's see if you're worth it.
' The first thing you can ask the individual thought is whether or not there's anything you can do about it.
Let's say you've been watching a preacher on television and he's frightened the life out of you by prophecying doom and gloom for all of us.
By the way, if this is the sort of thing that worries you, remember that these preachers would be out of a job very quickly if they painted rosy pictures of our future.
I won't start on that subject, but it's worth bearing in mind.
But if he's thundered about being taken over by a foreign power, or we're going to have earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and goodness knows what, is there anything you can do about any of this? No, there isn't, so why worry about things you can't change? So simply flick the thought away because it's pointless.
I know I used to be one of those people who, if I wasn't worried about anything, which was very rare, I'd worry that I'd missed something I should be worried about! These days, I seldom worry, simply because if I can't do anything about a concern, then it'll happen or not whether I worry or not! In my experience, this is the most powerful way of stopping these thoughts dead in their tracks.
If you're worried about something and you can do something about it, then fine.
Do something and rid yourself of the worry.
The chances are, though, that these thoughts pop into your head without any rhyme or reason.
Now, I'm not saying it's easy to stop yourself becoming anxious and worrying about all manner of things.
Further, you may well have resigned yourself long ago to the fact that you're a 'born worrier.
' You aren't! Anxiety due to worrying is learned behaviour and anything that you've learned, you can un-learn.
This worrying habit's probably been with you most of your life, so don't expect to switch it off as you would a light switch.
So let's re-cap.
1.
Whenever you catch yourself worrying and you're full of anxiety about something, take it out of your head, have a look at it and see whether it's worth your time.
2.
Can you do anything about it? No? Then why bother worrying.
3.
Find something absorbing to do.
Something that'll help take your mind off the worry.
Really work at those three ideas, and your worries will soon be things of the past!
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