Everyone experiences anxiety differently and what will stress out one individual will not faze another. Therapy for help to break anxious thinking patterns is very helpful and hypnotherapy is a great way to make changes. It's also good to remember that we can learn ways to control our reactions to triggers. Here are some helpful tips that you can apply yourself to help you to manage your thinking patterns.
Stop Thinking, Start Doing
Do you spend ages internally debating what to do whenever you need to decide on something? Do you worry about the consequences of making the ‘wrong’ choice? Maybe you have a ‘gut feeling’ but don’t trust your intuition. Or perhaps you do act on your ‘inner voice’ but only after running every scenario through your mind first. Weighing up the pros and cons of a situation is fine of course, as long as you just do it once! Dithering for days or weeks (or more!) before making a decision is time-consuming, exhausting, and keeps you in a stuck state; the more you fret, the less you do!
Rein in your irrational thoughts
Do you find yourself focusing on the worst possible outcome in a situation? Do you have ‘runaway’ thoughts that get increasingly negative or extreme? Perhaps your thoughts follow a familiar pattern that always ends in an imagined ‘disaster’. You may appreciate that these thoughts are irrational, but feel you have no control over them. Distraction is what is needed here. When you find yourself starting down this track, Stop! Get busy with something else; no-one is anxious all the time and when you are absorbed in something else, you can forget to stress. Yes, really!
Put the past in the past
Do you re-run conversations, thinking how things would have been if you had said or done something
different? Do you ‘rehearse’ various outcomes or imagine how others would have responded if you’d said the ‘right’ thing or done something ‘better’? Ruminating in this way leads to depression, as the inability to change things can leave a sense of helplessness. Focus on the present and leave the past in the past. Running a post-mortem on past conversations or events doesn’t change anything except your mood!
Put the past in the past
Do you re-run conversations, thinking how things would have been if you had said or done something
different? Do you ‘rehearse’ various outcomes or imagine how others would have responded if you’d said the ‘right’ thing or done something ‘better’? Ruminating in this way leads to depression, as the inability to change things can leave a sense of helplessness. Focus on the present and leave the past in the past. Running a post-mortem on past conversations or events doesn’t change anything except your mood!
