Racing Thoughts and How to Manage Them
Most of us who have anxiety issues find it extremely difficult to slow down our thoughts - and to be more in control of them rather than allow them to control us!
One way to manage this difficulty is to have at least some of these thoughts out of our mind and on to an online word document or paper.
The first thing this exercise does is to bring about an awareness of what it is that is really making us anxious.
Once we have an awareness of what it is that is causing the stress, the fear, the worry, or the anxiety - it becomes much easier to control and manage them.
We are now able to take a look at the content that is in front of us - think through or reflect on them – be more in control of the situation - and then decide on the next steps we need to take to manage them well.
The reason we have racing thoughts is most often not because we are not capable of handling the situation.Â
Somewhere along the way we have fed this thought into our minds that we are not able to meet the expectations brought on ourselves - either by us or by others.Â
This may not be a fact.Â
The way to discover whether this is a fact or not is by doing this exercise.
If by bringing the thoughts out of our mind and on to something that is in front of us – so that we can now reflect on them and make decisions to successfully get through them – then we clearly know that we have been having a false belief about our abilities.
The more consistent we are in doing this exercise the more we can convince our mind that this is a false belief.
The most remarkable thing about this exercise is that with time, our mind will come to believe this fact that we are indeed capable of completing our tasks well and up to expectations!
Our false belief is reversed and soon we will be out of this anxious state of mind!
We will find ourselves becoming a much calmer, more self-confident and less anxious person with regard to tasks that need to be thought through or done.
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