Andrey woke up and began to think about what? - but it’s not clear where the essence is in this stream of thought, and it turns out that for the brain this is absolutely not important. He woke up, began to chew his mental cud, and he didn’t want to stop at all. It's just a habit, such a peculiar and harmful habit of thinking. The young man remembered that today the weekend had finally begun, he was happy, and then frowned, because it would fly by so quickly again. But then he thought about plans, and then about work, about the weather, about friends, then he looked out the window - and again about the weather and again about plans...
As the brain woke up, the thought process became faster and faster and it became more and more difficult to separate one thought from another, they mixed into a mental mess of everything. And as a result, it is no longer clear why the mood changed so dramatically, and why now I want something completely different than half an hour ago. The topics of thought are very diverse and sometimes quite unexpected. And every thought leaves its own special aftertaste and often influences the formation of mood.
Features of the flow of thoughts
Modern man thinks a lot, sometimes even too much, sometimes completely unaware of this tedious background process in his head and has no idea what is really going on in his thoughts. But the famous philosophical saying says: “A person’s life always moves in the direction of his strongest thought.” The amount of information is growing rapidly and, often, it is so difficult to understand that it is absorbed entirely and indiscriminately.
Such an overabundance of information leads to unpleasant consequences - a kind of information intoxication. People rarely manage to keep track of their thoughts, and, meanwhile, every day internal dialogues and heated discussions are quietly gaining more and more momentum, and in order for your head not to explode, you need to be able to stop this flow of thoughts in time. Below is the quintessence of effective ways to stop the flow of thoughts in your head.
Going to the bathhouse.
Sudden changes in temperature shift most of the attention to the body so that the body can adapt to the changes. This causes the mind to gradually turn off. The greater the temperature changes you are able to endure, the greater the peace of mind. Contrast is important here, which is why bathhouse attendants love contrasting dousing with cold water, wallowing in the snow or dipping in an ice hole. Going to the bathhouse is a shocking contrasting practice.
If you go to the bathhouse with a leading bath attendant, then this practice can turn into a real ceremony. The combination of speaking, chanting, mantropenia, letting go of the old, calling on the new, meditation - takes bathhouse practice and the effects of it to a significantly different level. It’s one thing to go to the bathhouse and leave the body from hot to cold, and a completely different thing to combine such changes with spiritual actions. Find a good bathhouse attendant and try it. I recommend.
- Execution in a team: adds the ability to talk.
- With the host: access to the ceremony level.
- Duration: from 60 minutes.
- Instructions “Not a bathhouse. How to conduct a bath ceremony." Buy on VKontakte.
Commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov said about the bathhouse this way: “Send healthy rich people, limping players, intriguers and all sorts of bastards to the mineral waters. Let them swim in the mud there. And I am truly sick. And I need prayer, a village hut, a bathhouse, porridge and kvass.”
Send a question to the Universe.
When there is no time to practice. To calm your thoughts, you can speak directly to the Universe. Her answers transform the entire internal space. Her answers are a calming wave of warmth, light, a wave of enveloping care. How you can send a question to the Universe, see below in the closed part of the article.
Stopping the flow of thoughts is a useful skill
The stream of thoughts is a vivid mix of information accumulated over days, weeks, months and years, lived emotions, critical assessments, various comparisons of situations and events, memories, fantasies, etc. If everything listed above had its unique correct place in a person’s head, then it would be simpler, but the human brain is designed in such a way that without ordering, this entire mental set turns into garbage. And, before you put things in order, you need to stop cluttering your mental space, where your thoughts originate and develop.
I am here and now
One of the simple and, at the same time, effective ways to stop the seething stream of thoughts is to remember where you are now, what is happening and surrounding you at a particular moment in life. You need to look around and try to intentionally perceive everything that comes into your field of vision and is felt. Take a closer look at the people who are nearby or examine the objects that are in front of your eyes, remember what they are called, how they appeared in your life and what properties they have. Take a deep breath, stretch, become aware of the space in which you are, its size and shape, feel the sensations of your physical body. This will shift your focus and stop your flow of thoughts.
A few words about chronic insomnia
Before we continue, it is necessary to make a small but extremely important digression for the 10% of people who suffer from chronic insomnia. Namely:
- cannot sleep or wake up frequently almost every night;
- this continues for more than a month;
- this interferes with normal life and leads to nervous breakdowns.
If this sounds like you, try the techniques below, but keep in mind: they won't help you cope with severe sleep disorders. Most likely, you have unsuccessfully tried to overcome insomnia more than once: you followed the rules of sleep hygiene, meditated, used lavender oil, etc. Just in case, don’t really hope that these tips will become a panacea.
It’s better to ask your doctor to refer you to a specialized specialist who treats insomnia with proven methods. Everyone else - that is, those who have sleep problems only occasionally - can safely apply these techniques today.
Hold your breath
In order to try this method, you need to notice what it feels like - your breath. You need to feel its depth and rhythm, the way you inhale air through your nose, then it reaches your lungs, there is a barely noticeable stop and then you exhale it. When you do not control this process, with each action, various thoughts appear in your head, which can rush in a variety of directions, which can be fueled by emerging emotions or external events. You need to take control of this process and start tracking your breathing.
The speed of thought is in some way related to the speed of a person’s heart rate, and, accordingly, to the rate of breathing. You slow down your breathing and, at the same time, notice how the speed of your thought processes changes.
At this time, you can close your eyes, relax and begin to tune in to the pleasant silence that will soon arise from the absence of thoughts swarming around in your head. Next, based on how you feel, you choose the right moment and draw in enough air to fill about ¾ of your lungs, then gently stop and hold your breath. Simultaneously with this action, your flow of thoughts will stop.
How to get rid of negative thoughts: 5 effective techniques
5 Cognitive Behavioral Tips for Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts
- Method 1: Write down your thoughts
Psychologists believe that it is important to keep a record of your thoughts. This allows us to apply logic to the mental processes in our heads.
Let's give an example: Someone is afraid of losing his job. Overnight, he becomes obsessed with the fact that management thinks he is doing everything wrong and his anxiety grows. This vicious circle in the head will eventually lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, by constantly thinking about everything that he could do wrong, sooner or later this person will do everything wrong. To gain control, balance and consistency in your thoughts and actions, nothing is more helpful than writing down your negative thoughts.
All you need to do is take a piece of paper and write down every negative idea that appears in your head. And then find out for yourself its truth.
Statement: “I just know that everything I did at work was wrong.”
Truth Revealing:
Is there anything that proves this is true? Has my boss expressed dissatisfaction with my work? What did I do differently today? What seems so bad to me?”
Mentally, it is more difficult to sort through fears and apply an analytical approach to them, but on paper, all the contradictions and doubts immediately become noticeable.
On the Helppoint portal it is possible to keep an online diary. You can not only record and analyze your thoughts and beliefs, but also receive an analysis of your situations by a psychologist. How it works? Register, complete the questionnaire and the algorithm will select the most suitable psychologist for you.
Pay for the Diary consultation type, and start writing in the chat as in a diary as much and whenever you want. And your psychologist will regularly come into this chat and analyze what you have written, give feedback, advice, and exercises.
- Method 2: Affirmative Action Planning
This is good advice. Plan healthy activities at the beginning of the day. Something as simple as “quality time for yourself” gives very positive results in dealing with obsessive thoughts and allowing you to get rid of nervousness. It stops you from overthinking. These actions can be as simple and short as going out for coffee with a friend. Give yourself a break. Buy a book, cook a nice lunch, listen to music, etc.
- Method 3: Hierarchy of Problems
Intrusive thoughts are like smoke from a chimney; they are an indication that something is burning inside us. This inner fire consists of our unresolved problems, which are difficult to get rid of, and which only get worse over time.
The first step to controlling the focus of our thoughts, feelings and suffering is to clarify them.
How can we do this? There is advice that will help with this: list your problems from the simplest and least burdensome to the complex ones that can be solved with a lot of effort. Start by writing everything down in order. You visualize and organize all the chaos that is inside you using brainstorming.
Then make a hierarchy, starting with those that you consider small problems, and ending with the most paralyzing ones, which seem too big and insoluble to you.
Once you have a visual order, reflect on each point on the scale. Try to think rationally and come up with solutions for each problem.
- Method 4: Separating Emotions from Reality
Emotional reasoning is a very common type of bias. For example, if I've had a bad day and I feel frustrated, I start to see life as an endless, dark tunnel. Another common idea is to think that if someone doesn't love me, it's because I don't deserve love. It can be difficult to get rid of stereotypes.
Thus, another healing technique that we must learn to use daily is objectivity. We cannot forget that our emotions do not always point to objective truth. These are just momentary moods that we must understand and manage.
- Method 5: Preventing Intrusive Thoughts
Whether we like it or not, there are and will always be situations that will force us to plunge back into the abyss of obsessive thoughts. One way to notice these situations in time is to keep a diary. Something as simple as writing down your feelings every day makes you more conscious.
Write down everything that comes to your mind. Describe situations when you experienced certain feelings. There may be people, habits, or scenarios that make you feel out of control or vulnerable, and that keep you from letting go of your fears.
By keeping a record of our days, we will see what those situations are that cause negative feelings. With this technique, we can prevent a negative reaction to them (and this will help us cope with obsessive thoughts).
In conclusion, there are many cognitive behavioral techniques that can help with these and many other situations where we need to cope with anxiety, stress and depression. There are also good books on the topic, including Aaron Beck's Cognitive Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice.
“If our thinking gets bogged down in distorted symbolic meanings, illogical reasoning and erroneous interpretations, we become effectively deaf and blind.”
Aaron Beck
Introducing the clean white screen
This method is more likely to suit creative people with a good active imagination or those who seek to develop it and free their heads from thoughts. All thoughts that come to mind can be reflected on the screen of your mind's eye. Each person will have this screen with its own unique shape, special frame and color. At every second he can change in the most unexpected way, but sometimes in his image you can find some distinctive features that remain unchanged over a certain period of time. Pay attention to its color and tone.
How colorful are your thoughts? Since almost all thoughts have their own special emotional connotation, they are painted in different colors and paint peculiar pictures in the imagination. To turn off thoughts, you will need to bleach your inner screen. In order to influence the course of thoughts using color, you will need to track the emotional charge of your mental images for some time and, in accordance with it, color your inner screen. The background itself or what is happening on this screen can be colored. It is better to start with bright colors and gradually reduce their intensity towards white. And the moment your screen turns white, translucent, thoughts will become transparent and lose their former power, which previously controlled your thought flow.
What is "overthinking"
According to neuropsychologist Dr. Katie Davis, people who are prone to introspection are unable to regulate and shift their attention away from a specific thought or subject of their concern. They are easily distracted during the day and often cannot concentrate on work.
One little thing can unsettle such a person; he is unable to do anything until he solves his problem or stops thinking about it.
