Redirecting Thoughts

You ever have something you just can not stop thinking about? And the more you tell yourself not to think about it, the more it comes? Do you think about the future? Maybe the past, an ex, maybe obsessive thoughts and fears? Unwanted thoughts don’t discriminate. They affect all kinds of people at all kinds of times in life. Specifically during stressful times.

Trust me telling yourself to not think about it will just have the opposite effect. Something that’s really helpful is redirecting your Thoughts.What is Redirecting Thoughts?

Redirecting Thoughts is basically to change the direction or focus of thoughts. So let’s say you can’t stop thinking about someone. You take that thought you are thinking about and put your attention on something else. Redirecting thoughts is something that could completely change your thought patterns so it re-trains your brain to think in a different way.

Retrain Your Brain?

Our brains are constantly changing and adapting to our lives. I know it sounds like someone needs to perform a crazy lobotomy on you in order to have success with retraining your brain but you can actually do it all by yourself and all in the comfort of your own home! So how do you retrain your brain? It’s not easy and it takes a lot of work. It helps to follow steps.

Step 1: Recognizing Your Thoughts

The first step is to recognize your thought pattern. What is it that keeps coming to the surface. Maybe question why is it happen? Why can’t you stop thinking about whatever keeps coming up? You can’t just tell yourself to stop thinking about it. That makes it worse. Whatever keeps coming up to your conscious clearly wants to be dealt with. If it’s something you need to face then maybe make a plan to do something about it. If it’s something you can’t do anything about then continue on to step 2.

Step 2: Don’t Tell Yourself Not To Think About It

If you keep consciously thinking about something and you tell yourself not to think about it or get angry at it, what are the chances you won’t actually think about it? It will most likely come up even more. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge it’s there. Like hi, I see you.

You can’t control who knocks on the door but you can control who you entertain.

That basically means you can’t control the thoughts that come your way but you can control what thoughts you continue to think about.

Step 3: Don’t Entertain The Thought(s)

You may not be able to control those thoughts about specific things keep coming to the surface of your mind, but you can control how much you feed into it. When you feed into thoughts I call that the snowball effect. It especially is implied for anxiety. It starts with one thought.”I’m going to fail.” Then if it doesn’t stop there the snowball effect comes in. “If I fail I won’t be able to get a job and if I can’t get a job I will be homeless and if I’m homeless I’ll be alone and die.” And then before you know it you’re having a full-on panic attack. All because you entertained that thought. That’s why you first acknowledge the thought, you don’t tell yourself not to think about it and then you don’t keep feeding into the thought.

Step 4: Redirect The Thoughts

Finally, what I keep talking about. So you take the thought you’ve been thinking about and let it know, I know you’re there. And you direct your attention on to something else. Direct it on to the specific thing you’re doing “I’m taking a walk, look at the color of the trees, and the cute little bird sitting on the Branch.” Direct it onto your breathing “breath in through my mouth 1,2,3,4. Breath out through my nose 1,2,3,4,5,6. I can feel the air going down my throat and filling my lungs.” Direct it on to your senses. Five things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and something you can taste. This is specifically good in emergency situations like panic attacks. You get the idea. And the last and final step is important!

Step 5: Practice

Your brain isn’t going to be magically retrained by doing this one time. It took awhile for your brain to get like this and it will take awhile to lead your thoughts in a different direction. You most likely will struggle at first, even may not notice a difference in the beginning. It takes a lot of time and practice to get it down so you aren’t obsessively thinking about these thoughts. Think about training a dog or a baby learning to crawl and then walk. They don’t do it on the first try right? Unless you have a weird mythical baby that comes out of the womb walking. But no seriously it takes a long time, a lot of practice and CONSISTENCY. Your dog doesn’t roll over from just saying it. Its constant reinforcement and practice. Constant redirecting your thoughts really helps. Before you know it, you won’t even remember what it was that was causing you a problem.

No one aside from you can take care of this problem because it’s an all mental problem inside your own head. You’re the one that has to deal with it and you’re the one that’s going to have to face it head-on. Unfortunately, there’s no magic pill that can make it stop I wish there was. Like most things in life, it takes discipline and patience and practice. I know it will be very hard at first. Maybe you won’t get the courage to try it for awhile. Just you knowing this technique is enough to hope you’ll keep it in the back of your mind. Feeling out of control of your thoughts is rough. You got this!

Leave in the comments below things that help you when you feel out of control thoughts and your stories of struggling below!

Disclaimer

*Although I have studied and experienced these things myself I am no way a professional or have my social work license. All opinions in my posts are my own and you should go to your nearest therapist for a professional opinion and proper diagnosis. Do not use anything in these posts to diagnose yourself and others. Use anything at your own risk.