How can you control your thinking?
There are two main aspects to taking charge of your thoughts. Instantly, which means stopping unwanted thoughts, and planned, which means retraining your mind. The more you do the first the easier the second will become. It won’t happen, though, unless you take charge.
It‘s simple when you know how, but it is not easy, and it takes practice.
It takes intention and commitment to control your thinking, but with practise, you can get your mind to behave in a way that lets you feel more in charge, and more confident.
Here’s how to go about it:
Stop
When an unwanted thought occurs step back and simply observe it the way you would watch passing traffic. Don’t intervene or engage with the thought, just let it happen.
Do something different
What are you passionate about that diverts and engages you. Occupy the mind with a current project or something enjoyable you are planning, like a holiday or family event. Distract yourself by helping someone else, or absorbing yourself by focusing on an intricate task.
Distract yourself
Making the thought more tangible by talking about it to someone you trust (family, friend, coach), can help give you a new perspective. Do it once, don’t bang on about it. Choose someone who will listen without giving advice or trying to fix anything.
Learn relaxation
The reason you’ll have heard this so often is that it WORKS! Mindfulness, controlled breathing, relaxation techniques can all be learned quickly and easily. If these don’t appeal to you consider Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Quong or even dance.
Get ‘hands on’ help
Massage, reflexology and shiatsu all promote relaxation and produce light trance (just as the techniques above do), so if you can’t do it for yourself get help from a practitioner.
Guided Visualisation
This can be learned with a teacher, from a CD, a book or the web. Visualisation can be used simply to produce relaxation, or combined with images of your desired future to help with planning and personal development. This type of mental rehearsal can also be part of your plan to control your thinking.
Write
Writing down your thoughts can be done a number of ways: a) jot down what’s troubling you (before going to sleep for example), so you can put them to one side and come back to them later; b) Writing a plan, synopsis or mind map of something you want to achieve; c) Morning pages. Many people swear by Julia Cameron’s technique of writing three pages in longhand on waking in the morning. This should be ‘automatic writing’ where you simply let it flow, without editing what you write.
It takes intention and commitment to control your thinking, but with practise, you can get your mind to behave in a way that lets you feel more in charge, and more confident.
