Suffering
When you’re Unaware of your thoughts and Attached to them
Step 1: Becoming aware of thoughts
Being aware of our unhelpful thoughts is an incredibly important step to reducing stress.
Initially most people are ‘unaware of their thoughts’ and so are ‘attached’ to them.
You don’t need to spend your lives living in your head with thoughts like this - it’s just not helpful.
Fortunately, there is another way:
“Press Pause”
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious or worried - here’s a way to Press Pause and stop being stuck in your head.
It’ll take you closer to stresslessness, and a state of calm, even when you’re in the middle of life’s challenges.
Step 1) Aware of your thoughts
Step 2) Breathe into your body
Step 3) Connect with reality.
Step 1 : Becoming Aware of your thoughts
Many people live their life not even realising that they’re having thoughts like this. They believe these types of thought are just part of who they are, and there’s nothing they can do about them. Research shows that this isn’t true, and that there’s plenty you can do to become aware of these thoughts, and detach from them.
Here’s a way to notice your thoughts.
Close your eyes and wait for the next thought to come along.
When a thought appears, just observe it. Notice that you are having that thought.
Once you’ve noticed a thought, name it.
For example, “I’m having the thought that I need to finish my report tomorrow”, or “I think this is a useless exercise and I can’t notice my thoughts” (if that’s the thought, the good news is you’ve just noticed a thought - that was it!)
It’s not always easy, and be kind to yourself if you’re not able to do it first time, or even after multiple efforts.
If you can’t notice your thoughts by following this exercise, that’s completely normal. It can take a lot of practice, especially if you’ve spent your entire life not noticing your thoughts. Keep trying the process, on different occasions and see if you can observe a thought you have.
There are many other ways to notice thoughts, that I discuss in the ‘Stresslessness’ blog, so sign up below and you’ll discover other ways to notice your thoughts.