Your mind can be powerful than you think it is, it can be an ally or a formidable foe, especially during stress. When you listen to your mind and try to understand what it is saying, you can see it constantly telling you stories. For example, if it’s the first time you are traveling on a plane and you might end up thinking what if the plane crashes? , obviously, that’s just a story that the mind makes up. Even though if you have traveled by planes many times and always have been safe your mind might still say the same story.
The mind plays one of its greatest tricks here because most of the time you might not recognize such thoughts as stories. Scary thoughts like above can feel like direct observations of some things that are true, rather than the made-up stories that they are.
The simple practices of Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help your train your thoughts .
So the first step in training your mind to serve you well is to recognize the stories it’s telling you. A big part of what makes it hard to identify our anxious thought is that we’re often lost in them and completely focused on the future. Obviously, anxiety is about the future, so that’s where our thoughts pull our attention. Mindfulness and its practice can be a crucial part of starting to recognize the mind’s stories because it brings our awareness back to what’s happening at this very moment. Rather than scary predictions or thoughts, we can recognize that we’re having thoughts and we will be better able to hear what we’re telling ourselves.
The following can help you move forward with yourself.
1.Cognitive Distancing
Try to see your anxious thoughts as guesses and not facts, distance yourself from them. Your mind is trying to protect you from what could happen doesn’t mean it will. Look for Objective evidence: How likely do the negative outcome will actually happen? And what are the goods that can happen? try to reason it with past experiences and other information that you have about the situation.
2.Defuse
Stop being fused with your thoughts. Think of your thoughts as moving data passing through your mind, rather than it as objective truth about a situation. Our brains are hypersensitive to threats and dangers because humans tend to survive that way from the beginning. Some of your thoughts may be just automatic conditioned reactions generated by a brain that is related to survival. you have chosen whether or not to believe these thoughts, rather than just accepting them.
3.Direct Experience
Try to focus on direct experience rather than getting anxious about a situation every time. Your mind makes up stories about who you are, and about your safety. Not all these stories are accurate. Sometimes our minds are biased by negative past experiences. Try to think about your present situation, what is actually happening ? or what might happen? Notice they aren’t the same thing, even though your mind may treat them as the same.
4.Stay in the present
Is your mind regurgitating the past? Just because something negative happened in the past doesn’t mean it has to happen today or every day. Ask yourself if the circumstances, or your knowledge and coping abilities, have changed since the last time. As an adult, you have got more choices about what you associate with and are more able to identify, preempt, or leave a bad situation than you were a child or teenager.
5.Broaden your view and Be Mindful
You might be focusing too narrowly on the threatening aspects of the situation, rather than seeing the whole picture? Anxiety does make our minds contract and focus on the immediate threat without considering the broader context. Is this situation really important as your anxiety says it is? will you still care about it after 5 or 10 years? if not, then ease up.
Practice observing your thoughts, rather than reacting automatically to them. Think of your thoughts as clouds that are passing by. Which draw you in and which makes you want to run away? Is there a way you can untangle yourself and just observe your thoughts, rather than reacting?
In the end decide if your thoughts are helpful, just because a thought is true doesn’t mean that it is helpful to focus on -at least not all the time. Do not demotivate yourself. If only 1 in 10 people will get the job you seek, and you keep thinking about the odds, you may become demotivated and end up not applying for it. This is not helpful. Focus your attention on what is helpful and let the rest go!
“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Take care of your thoughts, it can make or break you.
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I struggle with anxiety. These are helpful tips. I have taken note of them.