Many of us know challenging moments in our lives when we've difficulty controlling our own thoughts and feelings. Imagine coming home after a hard day at work, taking a nice hot shower, eating a good dinner, having some chocolates, and starting to watch your favorite show on TV - nice, right? But we may have noticed that during these happy activities, our thoughts were thinking about project deadlines at work, the nagging boss, unfair colleagues, or the rude stranger we met in traffic that morning. These intrusive thoughts distract us from our present moment. Even as we go about our daily activities, we may be physically in one place, but mentally in another. For example, eating dinner at home and thinking about your rude boss will not help you to have a peaceful time.
Through these intrusive thought patterns, we lose our precious moments of the here and now. In an even worse situation, we come home with angry thoughts about our boss and tend to take it out on our family. Moreover, these intrusive thoughts and negative feelings can interfere with our sleep patterns by keeping us awake all night. In other words, holding onto any intrusive thoughts and negative emotions can affect our present state of mind and overall functioning.
So what can we do to get a better handle on these thoughts and feelings so that we can find more peace and relaxation? First of all, we need to understand that any pressing or intrusive thoughts can cause negative emotions or feelings in us. So it's good to treat the disease and not the symptoms. There are many ways we can do this. Here... I'll introduce five of them.
- See These Thoughts As Visitors To Our Home
We need to separate our intrusive thoughts from our own identities. To practice this, we need to see these thoughts as visitors in our house. A visitor visits our house and leaves, but we remain the owner. If we host visitors (for an extended period of time) who might cause us harm, we lose ownership of our house. When I speak of " homeownership," I'm referring to our focus on daily activities, our happiness, our peace, our contentment, and all that's sacred to us in our lives. In other words, "never lose yourself," by getting yourself trapped in your thoughts.
- Pen It Down
There's a big jumble of thoughts in our heads. When we try to deal with one particular thought, another one comes along. One thought is chained to the other. That's why sometimes when we reflect on ourselves, we're not able to find the right answer and remain confused. In some situations, after self-reflection, intrusive thoughts multiply and feelings worsen. To avoid the "jam in our head," a good way is to write them down. By transferring these thoughts from our head to the paper, we get clarity about our intrusive thoughts and pressing problems. This method helps us clear unnecessary thoughts and find appropriate solutions.
- Talk It Out To The Right Person
This is something most of us like to do. Talking to someone about our intrusive thoughts and negative feelings can help clear the clutter in our minds. However, be sure to talk to the right person. The right person is someone with whom we feel comfortable and with whom we can establish a clear relationship. This person should have earned our trust and is able to empathize with us. Talking to the wrong person could make our thoughts and feelings worse.
- Seek Professional Help
If we're having great difficulty overcoming these challenges, we can seek professional help. We can turn to social workers, counselors, therapists, or other professionals for support and guidance in coping with these intrusive thoughts and negative feelings.
- Meditate
Meditation is good medicine for us because it helps us to calm down and raise our awareness. We can take ten minutes every day to meditate. A simple way would be to pay attention to our breath. Breathe in and out consciously. Paying attention to our breath brings our minds into the present moment. It helps us manage intrusive thoughts and promotes clear thinking.
Final Words
Remember to use and practice these five great methods when you encounter any pressing thoughts and emotions. Start feeling energized and peaceful in the present moment.
I hope this was useful. Thank you for reading my tips and insights.
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