Drowning in Toxic Thoughts: A Practice for Mindfulness

Are you stressed and tormented by your thoughts, again? Even when they are benign, the spinning and sheer pace of them affronts your brain’s processing center. And there is no escape from the onslaught. Most of us have been there. Sometimes it’s not so easy to slow things down or even take a full breath between those racing thoughts. What can you do to calm down and stop the “runaway train”? Sometimes the only option is to temporarily engage in something that grabs your attention. Netflix, a walk, doing a body scan, preparing a meal, or — my favorite — playing online scrabble. When the racing thoughts get slower, you can start to feel the space between them. And that makes it easier to practice the mindfulness technique that I will describe at the end. We live in a society that teaches us to be distracted from the Self. Even with tiny infants, people will snap their fingers, touch the infant’s cheek or wave an object to bring the baby back from looking off into space or “day dreaming.” Ouch! How unfortunate. Instead of encouraging these moments that can support mental well being, “mindlessness” is seen as bad. Even as adults, others can feel compelled to bring us back to “reality.” Commanding us to bring our attention back to earth if we pause and daydream even for a moment. Feeling insulted if we need a moment to get refocused in a conversation. In this way, we learn to distract ourselves from focusing within, and self-reflection stops. T...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Habits Memory and Perception Mindfulness adaptive self anxiety Authentic Self Breathing Exercise self-compassion Toxic thoughts Source Type: blogs