Most of us walk around with heads busy as beehives, aware of some thoughts as they come and go but not fully aware of the buzz of mental activity just beneath the surface.

Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to stop and ask yourself, What was I thinking? After a long spell of unconscious thinking, more often than not, I can trace back my daydreaming at least an hour.

I used to be disappointed at how much of that not-quite-subconscious thinking was dark and negative, or at least not helpful. I, of course, saw the pattern as another example of what a horrible mess I was, which generated further negative thinking. I have since learned through my work that most people seem to think negative thoughts more often than positive ones.

Techniques to Change Your Negative Repetitive Thoughts

Each morning when you arrive in the vicinity of a mirror, I want you to look deeply and fondly at that person and say, “I love you.” Do this every day. If you are uncomfortable doing so, ask yourself why. Spend some time in this fashion, talking to yourself, and see what it does for you. After I got over the amazing, awkward, uncomfortable feelings, I found it to be a helpful device and a gentle reminder.

Creating your own personal Thought Police is another way to help you direct your thinking toward the sunny side of the street. The Thought Police were first created as a sinister force by George Orwell in his 1949 futuristic novel Nineteen Eight-Four, and I’ve re-created them as a useful force. Use the Thought Police to stop and frisk your brain regularly on suspicion of counterproductive thinking. “Freeze, Brain! This is the Thought Police! Empty your gray matter onto the sidewalk so we can go through your recent thoughts.”

I learned that the only way I could stop my pattern of negative thinking and reverse my thought patterns was to totally halt myself several times a day to examine my recent thoughts. Include some form of this stop-and-frisk activity in your daily routine until it becomes habit. Civil rights be damned, this recovery business is serious.

Creativity Is The Key To Your Prison Cell

One indicator of negative thinking for me was my jaw. Whenever I realized my jaw was particularly tight, I knew something was up, or rather down. So I’d slam the perp up against the brick wall of the alley and say, “All right, punk. Why the tight jaw? What are you hidin’, pal? You’re on probation, you know. You’re not supposed to be possessing those dark alley thoughts. What were you thinking??!!” Or maybe a couple of kindly English bobbies can do the work for you.

Remember, it’s time to be creative—creativity is the key to your prison cell. Devise things you can do and say to motivate yourself and change your subconscious thinking, as well as raise your PTA (Positive Thinking Average).

When I recalled negative thoughts, the best and least complicated advice I could give to myself was simply, “Do the opposite.” For example, if I had been thinking, I’m a hopeless schmuck, and I’ll never get out of this dismal, dark scary life, I didn’t have to go very far to get to, Don’t listen to him. I’m actually a loveable person who knows there really is hope, and I can see some light, and I’ll reach it by working hard and being positive every day.

When you have a tune stuck in your head that you’re sick of, the best way to change it is to sing a different tune. When you do opposite thinking, make it as vivid as you can. Close your eyes and create a visual image of what you will be thinking that is opposite of what you had been thinking.

Once you establish a routine of checking your thinking and then switching as needed to positive thoughts or stories, your subconscious will be receiving a steady flow of data that will change your response system. This is how you make changes in neural pathways. I’ll bring in Mr. Henry David Thoreau at this time to make the point poetically. This is something I can imagine him processing as he walked round and round Walden Pond:

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path we walk again and again. To make a mental path we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our minds.” (Thoreau: A Book of Quotations)

Tracing Back Your Thoughts

Recall as much as you can of your negative thoughts and try to trace them back. You may be able to break a pattern you aren’t consciously aware exists—a pattern that perpetuates negative thoughts.

For example, as I pass through my day, I see and hear some things I have a negative or disapproving attitude toward. I know that seeing or hearing one or the other of those negatively charged triggers can get me into a stream of just-below-consciousness negative thinking.

I regard negative thinking as a pattern that continues the way inertia works, requiring direct intervention in order to halt it. You will discover particular triggers that you can disarm forever with changed thinking. Presto change-o!

What worked for me was to intervene by creating a storyline for each negative stimulus in order to neutralize it in some way. In other words, turn a threat into something totally harmless through logical argument, or humor, or whatever works best for you.

Operate under the belief that if you make up something and say it often enough, it will be true as far as your subconscious is concerned. You already know your subconscious will believe just about anything. For example, a passing thought about, say, being out in a desert presents such a tremendous threat that all the alarms have to go off, triggering a Code 3 Emergency. Thanks a lot.

Visualizations

Dreaming while conscious is how I think of visualizations. I can still remember details from the very first time someone led me on a visualization many decades ago. We did it with low lights and music, a relaxing setting.

The visual journey required me to be looking down and around as I walked on a path of my choosing, describing details. At one point I was to look far ahead to my particular destination as it grew closer and clearer. There were many details in the session, but the ending was poignant. I was to come upon a dresser whose top drawer contained something left specifically for me. I slowly, cautiously opened the drawer and . . .

I hope you find what’s perfect for you in your top drawer.

Changing Your Routines & Getting Out of Your Own Way

I had a girlfriend who often said, “The best way to get your own way is to have more than one way.” She rarely followed her own advice, I must report, but that doesn’t mean being flexible isn’t good advice. It is. Work on varying your regular, safe routines so that each day you encounter something a little different and uncomfortable.

Change such things as how you make the bed, which hand you brush your teeth with, which hand and fingers you use to guide your mouse, the order or way you accomplish a work task, and so forth. Continue to make changes of that sort every day, and record them in your journal. This changing activity helps your brain be plastic and will give you practice for eventually effortlessly doing things that you used to perceive as dangerous. It’s all in your head, as they say.

Neuroscientists have determined that faithful repetition is the key to changing neurological patterns. You may not experience the fruits of your labors immediately; change can slip quietly and almost unnoticed into your thinking process. The point is, positive change occurred for me because I was doing positive work and feeling positive that it would work. Simple as that. If I had kept a regular journal all the time I was actively working on recovering, I know I would have been noticing subtle changes that led to my point of recovery.

I assume you will discover this happening in your journal work. If it occurs to you some morning that you haven’t had that feeling of dread for a couple of days, for example, be sure to note it. Every scrap of evidence is helpful in a Recovery Program. Think of it this way: when you begin to hear favorable remarks from people you trust about someone or something you had doubts about, you usually begin to change your thinking to a more positive view. Right? Well?

©2014 by Hal Mathew. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Conari Press,
an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. www.redwheelweiser.com.

Article Source:

Un-Agoraphobic: Overcome Anxiety, Panic Attacks, and Agoraphobia for Good: A Step-by-Step Plan
by Hal Mathew.

Click here for more info and/or to order this book.

About the Author

Hal Mathew was born and raised in Billings, MT. He began his writing and editing career at The Billings Gazette. Despite being plagued by panic disorder and agoraphobia, his journalism career included several other newspapers and a wire service. With Un-Agoraphobic he has created a way for those suffering with continual anxiety and panic attacks to reclaim their lives. He makes pottery, gardens, and writes in his adopted home of Salem, Oregon. Visit Hal online at www.unagoraphobic.com.