Stop the dreaded overthinking

Having continuous negative commentaries or movies dominating our thoughts not only impairs our behaviour, it causes mental and physical fatigue and embeds those harmful thoughts deeply into our unconscious minds. The unconscious is unable to decipher fact from fiction in this respect and is therefore led to believe that the sights and sounds we create are reality. Imagine being bombarded with all those panic-ridden pictures and dialogues every waking moment, no wonder the unconscious mind creates in us feelings of anxiety and overwhelm.

If we interrupt the negative sights and sounds often enough and early enough in the process, the interruption becomes a habit and the full movie or over-analytical conversation becomes jammed. Remember to practise often!

Stop the dreaded overthinking, doubting, negative self-talk – using the sounds of the words

1. You have experienced intense feelings several times in the past when thinking about your issue. Bring one of these real situations to mind. What were you saying to yourself, what were you thinking?
2. If you aren’t sure what you were saying to yourself, imagine a speech bubble coming out of your mouth in that picture. What would you have been saying in that moment?
3. So, that phrase you said to yourself, was XXXXXX
4. Say that old phrase exactly as you used to do in that picture and notice the feelings present then
5. Now say that phrase slowed down to about half normal speed and notice how the feelings change
6. Now say the phrase even slower, hear the words like in slow motion, drawn out. Notice how the feelings are changing for the better
7. Now slow the phrase down, so that you pause and take a breath between each word. Notice how the feelings change even more
8. Now double the length of the pauses between each word!
9. So when you try to think like you used to do, what do you notice that’s different now?

Stop the dreaded overthinking, doubting, negative self-talk – using the way the words look

1. You have experienced intense feelings several times in the past when thinking about your issue. Bring one of these real situations to mind. What were you saying to yourself, what were you thinking?
2. If you aren’t sure what you were saying to yourself, imagine a speech bubble coming out of your mouth in that picture. What would you have been saying in that moment?
3. So, that phrase you said to yourself, was XXXXXX
4. Picture that sentence in front of you, see the words. Are they in colour (which colours) or black and white? Are they in a certain font, capitals or lower case letters? Are they underlined or highlighted?
5. Now read the sentence and notice the feelings that were present
6. Stretch the words out, so the sentence has double the size of the spaces between the words. Now read the sentence, what do you notice in how your feelings change?
7. Now really stretch that sentence, so that the spaces are massive between the words, so that’s it’s not easy to read, you struggle to put the letters into words. Read the sentence and notice how the feelings are changing for the better
8. Stretch the sentence so that the spaces are     huge! And stretch each word so that the letters           a      r     e               f     a     r                   a     p     a   r     t           t       o       o     !       Stretch them even more! You’re having to piece each word together letter by letter and it takes a lot of effort now. Notice how much better you feel now.
9. So when you try to think like you used to do, what do you notice that’s different now?