6.
“Many people here have given great lifestyle advice like exercise meditation and journaling, so I want to jump in with an ‘in the moment’ practice that helps me:”
“It’s based on the adage that ‘you are not your thoughts,’ which basically means that even if you think something, it doesn’t define you. It’s not YOU, and it’s just a thought that crosses through your brain. You can choose to pick that thought up and hold it, or you can stand back and watch it pass by and let the next thought come.
So what I’ve done is sort of imagine my thoughts as being in little boxes on a conveyor belt. As they come, I pick them up, open them, and see what’s inside. And if it’s an anxiety thought, I imagine myself just closing the box and putting it back on the belt and saying, ‘Thanks, but I’ll wait for the next one,’ and letting it travel away. It sounds silly and trite, but it’s actually helped me a surprising amount in dealing with acute spikes.”
–tsaihi
“This technique is called Thought Defusion, and we practiced this in the anxiety program.
My favorite method is labeling, so when a thought comes up, I say, ‘That’s a judging thought,’ or ‘That’s an anxious thought.’ It seems silly, but it helps distance myself from distressing thoughts my brain spits out. Other methods are repeating the thoughts I have in a silly voice or imagining leaves on a stream and putting my thoughts on the leaves as they float away.”
–starrystarryeyed
