Anxious Thoughts – Top Tips To Free Your Mind
There you go again …. a mind busy with thought upon thought …. buzz, buzz, buzz, a hive of anxious thoughts and activity, unwilling to pause for a moment. Does this sound like you? Well, if it does, how do you think you would feel if those thoughts could just pass on through allowing your mind to feel calmer and freer?
Read on to find out more ….
I’m imagining that you would feel that would be wonderful, a release …. but maybe inconceivable …. but it isn’t. There are steps that you can take that can encourage that process to happen.
Our thoughts can dictate how we feel. When there is so much activity it can feel like a panic or need to immediately rectify a situation. This can lead to a sense of urgency or racing mind. Simultaneously, anxious feelings can initiate physical reactions within us. Such as shortness of breath, tightness within the body, higher blood pressure, headaches, grinding of teeth and such like.
Just pause and have a think about the anxious thoughts you tend to receive.
Are they related to something that has happened in the past ? Whether
that be a long time ago or even just now, or something you can imagine may happen in the future?
We are very good at re-running our mind like a movie. For example, uncomfortable memories from the past. Then we create new uncomfortable scenarios that could happen in the future.
Just by imagining or remembering something anxious you are immediately having an effect upon your physical being as well. You may have heard of fight or flight [1] and this can happen in a real situation or an imagined one.
In fight or flight mode, several chemicals are released within the system that prepare the body to fight or flee, so you can imagine the mind becomes super alert.
So how can we bring ourselves back to the present, the here and now, so we can quieten our mind and body?
Release The Anxious Thoughts
- Remind yourself that the present moment is real life. The past and future are gone or imagined. To live we have to be here.
- Lay or sit yourself comfortably if possible and become aware of more of your senses. Feel the chair beneath you, your feet on the floor, the cushion beneath your head or back. Feel the temperature of the air around you, notice any smells, listen for any sounds, close or far away.
- Look at five things around you, one by one. Look for detail, imagine what it would feel like to hold or touch that thing. How heavy, light, smooth or rough it may be. You are bringing your mind into the here and now, the reality.
- Notice that how you allow your mind to focus on your surroundings, that it quietens, it feels calmer, it’s settling down.
- If any uncomfortable thoughts or feelings drift in, try to label them. For example, if you have anxious thoughts about your partner or children, you could label that thought or feeling by their name. By labelling, you are accepting they are there. With more understanding (taking an outside view), you should find that they drift away easier. Subsequently, preventing you being taken away by them into the past or present.
- If you find yourself in a train of thoughts about possible scenarios in the future, try to interrupt with the word ‘FACT’. Most of the time there is NO absolute fact that the scenario is going to absolutely happen. Therefore, by recognising this you can make a conscious decision to not follow the movie in your mind and create further discomfort. Let it be what it is. It’s just an assumption that is more than likely not going to occur, so why give it your attention?
- Good thoughts release good feelings. Enjoy this very moment and if you wish to daydream . Then see the positive and good things happening. We know that life can change for the good in just a moment.
For more information on how you can use your thought processes in a completely different way for the positive, contact
Therapy is still available by phone, skype or zoom, plus personal audios
07909 992635/ 01403 267276
[1] https://www.psychologistworld.com/stress/fight-or-flight-response
