Stay with me here… You can’t stop your thoughts. Why? Because your thoughts are generated in your brain. Your brain’s job is to think. Just the same way that your heart’s job is to pump blood, your lung’s job is to breathe, your stomach’s job is to digest food, etc. So how can you switch off your thoughts if your brain’s job is to think? We cannot help what pops into our brain, but what we can do is work on how to manage them. Managing thoughts is no easy feat but there are a few things that can help.
The first step is to know what your triggers are. How often do you get hooked by your thoughts? How intense is your reaction? How long does it last for? How do these thoughts change your internal experience? Do they make you anxious?Depressed? Do you block out thoughts? How do these thoughts change your external experience? How do you react behaviourally when you get hooked? What does that look like? Do you go from zero to 100, like flicking a switch?
Once you establish a pattern of your triggers, the next step is to begin to notice when they’re occurring. Once you start noticing it, you can then then shift gears into manual mode rather than being on auto-pilot. What does it mean to shift gears? Shifting gears is a skill. It takes a lot of practice. To shift gears we need to be able to engage our five senses to help bring our attention back to the present moment. What can you see? What can you hear? What can you touch/feel? What can you taste? What can you smell? The more you notice when you’re down the rabbit hole, and bring your attention back to what you’re doing in the present moment using your five senses, the longer you’ll be able to stay in the present moment over time. Keep in mind though, you’re human, and so there will still be plenty of times when you won’t be able to stay in the moment for very long. This is perfectly natural and normal. You can only do the best you can.
Building the skill of staying in the present moment can be done in a formal and informal way. Formal ways of practicing this skill is through activities like formal meditation, yoga, and deep breathing exercises. Informal ways of practicing mindfulness skills is by being mindful of daily activities such as eating breakfast/lunch/dinner, showering, brushing your teeth, cleaning the house, driving, etc. For example, if you’re cooking dinner, describe what you can see, hear, feel, smell, taste, in a non-judgemental and curious manner. The more we practice shifting our attention to the present moment the less distracted we become by our unhelpful thoughts. So while we may not be able to switch off our mind, we can certainly train our brains with practice. It’s not easy, and it’s not faultless, but it’s a reprieve.
For further support on learning how to manage unhelpful thoughts give our team a call on (03) 9882-8874.
This blog was written and prepared by Dr Celin Gelgec - Clinical Psychologist here at MWG.