Anxious thoughts.... what can I do about them?
When you start to experience anxious thoughts, it is very important not to force the thoughts away. Let the thoughts in. The more comfortable you can become with them, the better. These thoughts may never go away fully but what you can learn is to change your reaction to them. By changing your reaction to the anxious thoughts you become free of them.
Once you establish a new way of reacting to the thoughts it does not matter if you have them or not. Your reaction is what defines the whole experience (and that applies to almost everything).
Everybody experiences fleeting thoughts that many would consider scary or crazy. The difference between most people and somebody who gets caught up in them, is that the average person sees them for exactly what they are, fleeting anxious thoughts, and casually ignores them. The anxious person is at a disadvantage as they already have a certain level of anxiety in their system. The thoughts easily spark feelings of further anxiety which builds into a cycle of fear. You break the cycle by changing how you react to the fearful thought.
As the old saying goes "whatever you resist, will persist" I like to think of it as just allowing and surrendering to the thoughts. Seeing the thoughts for exactly what they are, just your mind presenting options to you. It's not necessary to follow the thought and believe the thought. You can just notice it, observe it and then move on to another thought.
Remember these rules
1. You attract what you fear
2. What you pay attention to grows bigger
3. What you observe with a calm mind dissolves away.
Once you establish a new way of reacting to the thoughts it does not matter if you have them or not. Your reaction is what defines the whole experience (and that applies to almost everything).
Everybody experiences fleeting thoughts that many would consider scary or crazy. The difference between most people and somebody who gets caught up in them, is that the average person sees them for exactly what they are, fleeting anxious thoughts, and casually ignores them. The anxious person is at a disadvantage as they already have a certain level of anxiety in their system. The thoughts easily spark feelings of further anxiety which builds into a cycle of fear. You break the cycle by changing how you react to the fearful thought.
As the old saying goes "whatever you resist, will persist" I like to think of it as just allowing and surrendering to the thoughts. Seeing the thoughts for exactly what they are, just your mind presenting options to you. It's not necessary to follow the thought and believe the thought. You can just notice it, observe it and then move on to another thought.
Remember these rules
1. You attract what you fear
2. What you pay attention to grows bigger
3. What you observe with a calm mind dissolves away.