Focus Entirely On Your Breathing
This advice is very outdated but still commonly recommended by mental health professionals alone, why is this? This is because it works! By shifting all your focus onto your breathing, you instantaneously leave that potentially negative headspace you were resided in.
This strategy works in another way as well. When you shift your breathing rate into a slower more controlled tempo, and deep breaths, you trick the brain into relaxing. This means for lowered cortisol levels, a slight increase in serotonin and overall feelings of relaxation.
When the body is in an anxious state, blood pressure rises, the heartbeat increases and your breathing elevates. By purposefully slowing down your breathing in anxious or non-anxious situations, you immediately signal to the body that nothing is wrong and there is no reason to worry.
In conclusion, the distraction that accompanies this focused breathing method, alongside the mentally and physically relaxing feeling that accompanies breathing slower and deeper are precisely the reasons why this method is so effective.
How To Stop Being An Overthinker And Live In The Present Moment
Are you the kind of person who feels stuck in your own head constantly? Do you dwell on your thoughts and notice when your thoughts take control?
Do your thoughts often cause anxiety? Do you wish that you could get out of your head and enjoy your life?
Everyone should be self-aware to the point that they recognize their thoughts, but when you spend too much time or find yourself obsessing over the things that pop into your head, you start to lose control of yourself.
It can start to feel like youre stuck in a sort of mental prison, and the more you try to get free of your thoughts, the more your thoughts stay stuck in your head, getting bigger and bigger and demanding to be addressed.
This article will not only discuss what it means to overthink everything.
We will also explore how living in your head affects your mental health, how to deal with the anxious feelings this sort of behavior causes, and how to get out of your head so that you can get back to your life andlive in the present moment.
Positive Effects Of Being More Mindful
The process of replaying the same thoughts over and over in your head is known as rumination. Research has shown that rumination can be harmful in many ways. Being able to free yourself from this negative practice is an important skill to master.
One of the main problems with rumination is that when you focus on disturbing events in the past or future, you create anxiety for yourself in the present. This anxiety triggers your stress response and robs you of joy at the moment. The result may be chronic stressan unhealthy condition that can lead to a host of physical, mental, and emotional problems.
Learning to avoid rumination , can help you maintain or achieve an improved state of mind.
Read Also: How To Journal To Help Anxiety
How To Get Out Of Your Head Brain Sachetta
In this HappyTalks episode, Brain Sachetta discusses his personal experience with anxiety & shares some useful tips & techniques with Dr. Alice & Donovon.
Brian Sachetta is an author, blogger, and software developer from Boston, Massachusetts. Hes known for his self-help book series, Get Out of Your Head, which seeks to help readers overcome anxiety and depression. Much of Brians writing is focused on health, wellness, and personal development. He is passionate about using his skills to positively influence the lives of others in any way he can.
Brian Sachetta:
How Much Worrying Is Too Much
Worries, doubts, and anxieties are a normal part of life. Its natural to worry about an unpaid bill, an upcoming job interview, or a first date. But normal worry becomes excessive when its persistent and uncontrollable. You worry every day about what ifs and worst-case scenarios, you cant get anxious thoughts out of your head, and it interferes with your daily life.
Constant worrying, negative thinking, and always expecting the worst can take a toll on your emotional and physical health. It can sap your emotional strength, leave you feeling restless and jumpy, cause insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, and muscle tension, and make it difficult to concentrate at work or school. You may take your negative feelings out on the people closest to you, self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or try to distract yourself by zoning out in front of screens. Chronic worrying can also be a major symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder , a common anxiety disorder that involves tension, nervousness, and a general feeling of unease that colors your whole life.
If youre plagued by exaggerated worry and tension, there are steps you can take to turn off anxious thoughts. Chronic worrying is a mental habit that can be broken. You can train your brain to stay calm and look at life from a more balanced, less fearful perspective.
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Also Check: How To Stop Morning Anxiety
Learn Strategies To Immediately Deal With Symptoms
Educate yourself by learning strategies to immediately deal with anxiety symptoms. The National Institute of Anxiety and Stress has just made available free information that can help you reduce anxiety symptoms quickly, easily, and effectively.
This free information contains audio and workbook exercises that show you:
- how to stop intense anxiety using a simple three-step formula
- how to deal with anxiety symptoms quickly
- what to do when youre having a panic attack
How To Stop Thinking About Something
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Why Is It So Hard To Stop Worrying
Constant worrying can take a heavy toll. It can keep you up at night and make you tense and edgy during the day. And even though you hate feeling like a nervous wreck, it can still be so difficult to stop. For most chronic worriers, the anxious thoughts are fueled by the beliefsboth negative and positivethat you hold about worrying:
Negative beliefs about worry. You may believe that your constant worrying is harmful, that its going to drive you crazy or affect your physical health. Or you may worry that youre going to lose all control over your worryingthat it will take over and never stop. While negative beliefs, or worrying about worrying, adds to your anxiety and keeps worry going, positive beliefs about worrying can be just as damaging.
Positive beliefs about worry. You may believe that your worrying helps you avoid bad things, prevents problems, prepares you for the worst, or leads to solutions. Maybe you tell yourself that if you keep worrying about a problem long enough, youll eventually be able to figure it out? Or perhaps youre convinced that worrying is a responsible thing to do or the only way to ensure you dont overlook something? Its tough to break the worry habit if you believe that your worrying serves a positive purpose. Once you realize that worrying is the problem, not the solution, you can regain control of your worried mind.
Name What Youre Feeling
When youre experiencing an anxious episode, you may not realize whats going on until youre really in the thick of it.
Recognizing anxiety for what it is may help you calm down quicker.
Name that this is anxiety not reality and that it will pass, says Kim Hertz, a psychotherapist at New York Therapy Practice. When you are in a heightened state of anxiety, you want to disrupt that cycle, and for some people, thought-stopping techniques are effective and as simple as saying stop to the internalized messaging that heightens anxiety.
In other words, consider recognizing that what youre feeling is anxiety and talking yourself through it.
Embrace absolute truths, says Steven Sultanoff, clinical psychologist and professor at Pepperdine University. I will get through this one way or another.
Naming your sensations and feelings may help you step away from them. This is anxiety, it is not you and it wont last forever.
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Monitoring Your Own Reaction
So many of these unwanted thoughts are the result of the way you respond to them. When you feel shame or get upset at yourself for having them, you give them much more power and they’re more likely to affect your happiness and your mind.
You have to be careful, and try your best not to react this way. Force yourself as best you can to be “okay” with the fact that these thoughts occur. Remember, they’re just anxiety and they don’t mean anything. Once you cure your anxiety disorder the thoughts will go away. Until then, they’re just an inconvenience and nothing you should concern yourself with, no matter how fearful the thoughts are.
Notice Negative Thinking Patterns
When youre in your head, what are you thinking about? Is there negative self talk? Are there negative thoughts that only worsen your mental health? Are they anxious thoughts that dont serve you? Is your state of mind generally an unhappy mind?
Take a step back and watch yourself think. Like we mentioned earlier, you dont want to fight your thoughts. You can actually detach yourself from your thoughts and watch them like youd watch any sensation in your body. Notice where the mind gravitates to. See if you can challenge your thoughts, and when you do, what are the excuses and objections your mind creates? When you begin to detach yourself from your thoughts, they hold less power over you and thus, youre able to get out of your head and the thinking traps it creates.
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Thoughts Are Just Thoughts: How To Stop Worshiping Your Anxious Mind
View the ADAA Live Webinar with ADAA members Drs. Kissen and Greene – What Are Intrusive Thoughts and How Can You Deal with Them?
If you suffer from anxiety, you probably have a contentious and complicated relationship with your mind. It feels like your mind tortures you. It gives you all these thoughts about what you should be scared of and horrible things that could happen to you.
It tells you that you need to worry, analyze, and seek reassurance about all these things. It never shuts up. It won’t leave you alone. Perhaps worst of all, when you try to tell it why you probably don’t need to be afraid of all the things it says will happen, it calls you crazy or stupid or any number of bad names. It’s a bully.
It feels like your mind is torturing you.
And yetyou worship your mind. You take what it says very seriously. You believe that if your mind says something, it must be important. It must mean something. No matter how mean your mind is to you, you give it the utmost respect and trust. That’s the problem.
It is your torturer, and yet you worship it. In what other situation would you ever want to worship your own torturer?
The problem is not the fact that your mind gives you negative thoughts the problem is that you take your mind so seriously. Just because your mind says something is important does not mean it actually is important. Just because something feels important also does not mean it is important.
Thoughts are just thoughts.
Traces Of Deteriorating Physical Health
Everyone has habits that come out during high times of stress or anxiety. For me, the shorter and more ragged my nails are, the more likely Im restless. Picking at my nails becomes a quick and routine way to deal with my ongoing anxiety.
I first started having short and unkempt nails when I was in a romantic relationship that was pretty toxic. It started as a coping mechanism for my youthful anxiety and returns when I need to cope. Its a physical sign that Im not sure how to let things unfold or let things be.
Recommended Reading: How To Overcome Anxiety Disorder
How To Be Mindful Of Your Thoughts
Learning how to be mindful and observe your thoughts non-judgementally can help combat rumination and may lead to better sleep, more effective downtime after work, greater focus, and increased creativity. The practice may even be good for your relationships. So investing some time in mindfulness strategies is well worth it.
If your thoughts about a stressful situation become “stuck” and thinking about an event no longer leads to positive change, its time to take steps to change your thinking.
That said, letting go of negative emotions is easier said than done. There are a few techniques to quiet your thoughts that you can try.
Mental Symptoms Of Anxiety
Many symptoms of anxiety cannot be seen by others and offer no outward signs of distress. Since people can’t read the minds of others, concerning thought processes and worries need to be shared to be understood.
Some common mental symptoms of anxiety include:
- Feeling nervous, restless or tense
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
- Having difficulty controlling worry
- Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety
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How To Eliminate Your Toxic Thoughts And Get That Person Out Of Your Head
No doubt you work really hard to eliminate everything thats toxic in your life. For example, you might buy organic products, avoid unhealthy foods, and eat green vegetables. However, its likely that you put very little effort into trying to detox your mind. Yet, doing so could have a really positive impact on your daily life.
How, then, can you stop thinking about a toxic person and the damage theyve done to you? How can you forget their attitude, behavior, or actions that let you down and upset you? Why does this unpleasant memory keep coming back to you again and again?
These ten small but powerful ideas will help you get that toxic person out of your head. Therefore, youll get out of that downward spiral of toxic thoughts and emotions. Indeed, choose any of these ways of thinking or acting, and youll be able to rid yourself of that undesirable person whos haunting your mind once and for all:
1. Stop talking about them. After a while, not mentioning them will mean they go completely out of your head.
2. Wait and see what happens next. Often, you feel the need to respond and react to difficult people or situations immediately. Instead, give yourself permission to wait and see what happens next.
4. Try not to try to get into other peoples minds. Youll never get to know what theyre really thinking. Its impossible.
Trace It Back To The Source
Identifying the causes of brain fog can help you figure out how to address it more effectively.
Temporary sources of stress like a big project at work can contribute to mental fatigue. Those causes are often fairly easy to identify.
But if youve been dealing with anxiety or stress for a while, you might have a harder time recognizing whats affecting you.
If you cant quite pinpoint whats creating all the background noise in your mind, working with a therapist can be a big help .
Also Check: How To Help Someone With Social Anxiety
How Is It Treated When Is It A Symptom
Cognitive behavioral therapy is considered a useful treatment approach for all mental health conditions that may have rumination as a symptom.
A diagnosis is not necessary, though. If you feel you ruminate from time to time, and this causes you anxiety or distress, a therapist trained in CBT can help you build coping tools for every day.
A few other options include:
Work On Enhancing Your Self
Many people who ruminate report difficulties with self-esteem. In fact, lack of self-esteem can be associated with increased rumination. Its also been linked with increased risk of depression.
Enhancement of self-esteem can be accomplished in many ways. For instance, building on existing strengths can add to a sense of mastery, which can enhance self-esteem.
Some people may choose to work on the enhancement of self-esteem in psychotherapy. As you enhance your self-esteem, self-efficacy may also be enhanced. You may find that youre better able to control rumination.
Recommended Reading: How To Calm Severe Anxiety
What Does It Mean To Get Out Of Your Head
- Accept what you cant control. Practice radical acceptance and notice how it liberates you from fighting reality and your mind.
- Take a step back from your thoughts. Its important to make the distinction between your thoughts and you. You are not your thoughts. Similar to what the saying cant see the forest for the trees is aiming at, you can take a step back and notice whats happening. Then, you can freely choose how to respond, rather than just reacting to your thoughts.
- Be present. Are your thoughts about the present moment, or do they focus on something that happened in the past? Remind yourself that the past cannot be changed. If youd like, you can try taking a few deep breaths to ground yourself or do a quick meditation.