Accepting thoughts

[rizo]

Sometimes the best thing you can do to make yourself feel better is just accept your thoughts for what they are.

Even if they're scaring the life out of you, at the basic level they are only thoughts and probably untrue.
You can teach your mind to think this way by constantly telling yourself in times of over-thinking, 'they are just thoughts.'
It gives you a better opportunity to challenge them when you can scrutinize them in that way.

it takes time and lots of practice but its helped me a lot in the last few weeks.
Today has been really up and down for me and I actually forgot to accept the thoughts, instead I was analyzing why each one might be true (ruminating) and it made me feel terrible until I remembered to just accept them.

Remember, You are in control, not the anxiety.

[Mark13]

Remember, You are in control, not the anxiety.
My conscious believes that, my sub-conscious doesn't :winks:

[Tish]

That's so true.. It's really, really hard at first but then one day you realise that they're becoming less frequent and it's a wonderful feeling that raises your confidence all round. :yesyes:

[Arnie365]

Hi mark that's because only about 1-10% of all the thoughts you have come from your conscious mind. The rest are all sub conscious. I was amazed web my therapist told me this but it makes sense why anxiety is so difficult to take on. The vast majority of your thoughts you don't know you are having!

Really good advice though Rizo

[Mark13]

I know Arnie, and I'm not disparaging rizo's advice.

In fact I'm working on training my subconscious, using a CBT book and "mindfulness" book.

[Arnie365]

Im in the same boat. Good luck with yours!