There is one thing that is typically keeping you from who and where you want to be … Your Thoughts.
* The thoughts you think
* The stories you tell yourself
* The beliefs you hold
* How you don’t know how to do something
* I wonder if people will pay me for this
* I’m not expert enough
* Can I do this from home
* I’m just getting started
Whatever these stories are that you’re telling yourself, that is the thing that is keeping you from having everything you want.
𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜.
1. Notice when you’re stuck in your head.
Pay attention to what is going on in your mind. It is so easy for us to revisit the stories that trigger us that we don’t even realise we are doing it.
This is when we start replaying events over and over; worrying about things we can’t control. Acknowledge your thoughts, is this thought pattern serving you?
Telling yourself to stop thinking about something will backfire. The more you try to prevent a thought from entering your brain, the more likely it is to keep popping up.
2. Focus from a sense of expansion.
When we want to change from a sense of lack, we’ll keep attracting that. Turn your thoughts into a question, this is creating from a sense of choice, expansion and possibility. Dwelling on your problems isn’t helpful. If it’s something you have no control over, ie. a natural disaster or crisis, think about the strategies you can use. Focus on the things you can control, like your attitude and actions.
You could also change your activity. Exercise, engage in conversation on a completely different subject, or work on a project that distracts you. Doing something different will put an end to the barrage of negative thoughts.
3. Flip Your Script.
Rehashing your problems for long periods of time isn’t productive, whether that is in your head or bringing up the same stuff with friends over and over. How can you do things differently by recognising the potential pitfalls to your thoughts and actions can help you create a different future.
Take time each day to consider the script going on in your mind. It’s easy to get carried away with negative thoughts, so before you conclude the results to those thought, which if it is really worrying you is often over-exaggeratedly negative, in only going to deliver the same.
a. Mind dump
During that time period let yourself worry, ruminate, or mull over whatever you want; or you may find a highly ritual or writing it all down (just let it flow, don’t think about what is going onto paper). When your time is up, move onto something else. And when you start overthinking things outside of your scheduled thinking or mind dump time, simply remind yourself that you’ll need to wait until your “thinking time” to address those issues in your mind.
b. Future self
Once we create space for more, we can think from a different perspective. Ideally one that is where we are headed.
When you write as your future self, as if it has already happened, it is a way to draw everything your desire into your life. You are creating memories that you want your brain to pull from in order to help you create the experience you desire rather than the one you have been experiencing over and over.
4. Learn mindfulness skills.
It’s impossible to rehash yesterday or worry about tomorrow when you’re living in the present. Mindfulness techniques can help you become more aware of the here and now.
Just like any other skill, mindfulness takes practice, but over time, it can decrease overthinking.
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To put it into a scientific perspective: As a thought travels through your brain, neurons fire together in distinctive ways based on the specific information being handled, and those patterns of neural activity actually change your neural structure. Busy regions of the brain start making new connections with each other, and existing synapses, the connections between neurons, that experience more activity get stronger, increasingly sensitive, and start building more receptors. New synapses are also formed (and this is the result we are achieve by putting into practice the points above).