I'm sick of thinking

[I'mdave27]

All I do is think. I think about stuff that doesn't or shouldn't matter but I can't stop it's like I'm spending all my time in my head , stuck in thought. My mind is tormented thanks to thinking

[cloudbusting]

Hi Dave

He's not everyone's cup of tea but have a look at some stuff by Eckhart Tolle on YouTube, in particular where he talks about anxiety.

Lisa x

[HalfJack]

I think I know what you mean. You can teach yourself to tone down obsessive thinking.
My concentration is still a big problem for me. It pretty much always wanders and raves when I need it to focus but I found that drawing clears my head pretty effectively. It's not for everyone but I'm sure everyone has their thing, it's just a matter of finding it :)

[JoeNoir]

Dave, I'd love to stop thinking sometimes. If I could get a gizmo and set it for an hour or two to stop my thoughts churning, I'd be first up to order one from Amazon.

[Oosh]

Get out of your own head by focusing on an external task that you can get fully engrossed in, like HalfJack has her drawing.

If thinking about yourself is stressing you forgetting yourself is the opposite.
When's the last time you were so involved in something you forgot yourself ?

Forgetting yourself means being yourself because it FLOWs straight out without you thinking about it.
Forgetting yourself frees you from crippling self awareness.

This is getting a bit hippy but I've thought that FLOW might be the answer to a lot.
People look for happiness but maybe being in a state of flow where you've forgotten yourself and are completely gripped by an activity is where it's at.

Flow is getting outside yourself.

A painter painting.
A surfer surfing.
A writer writing.

I'm not an expert on flow, far from it. Just some thoughts that's all.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Creative outlets as HalfJack & Oosh discussed are good ways to deal with it. The creative part of the brain is powerful and will take concentration.

Try Mindfulness meditation, its ideal to combat this problem.

[Cheesemonster13]

Reading is my main way of distracting myself from the obsessive thoughts, and gives me some respite from it. I know other people who use games, maths problems or puzzles, anything that allows them to focus on something else.

I've tried meditation, but trying to focus on nothing is something that I don't seem able to do, and it makes my anxiety worse. Alcohol worked in the short-term, but I could see where that would lead to, so I've given up drinking.

Sorry, I know I'm not being very helpful, but I'm trying to deal with this myself at the moment.

[MyNameIsTerry]

CheeseMonster,

(wicked name by the way!)

I had that problem at times with meditation but what I find worked was to follow one to three of the breathing inductions to stop my thoughts if I couldn't stop the obsessions.

[Cheesemonster13]

MyNameIsTerry

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a go. :)

[blueangel]

I've always found sudoku very useful. It engages the logical bit of my mind and then it's quite difficult for other random thoughts to burst through.