Thought Attack

A powerful technique for becoming more peaceful is to be aware of how quickly our negative and insecure thinking can spiral out of control. Most of the time, I always noticed how uptight I feel when I'm caught up in my thinking. And to top it off, the more absorbed I get in the details of whatever is upsetting me, the worse I feel. One thought leads to another, and yet another, until at some point, I just become incredibly agitated.

One time I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered a phone call that needs to be made the following day. Then, rather than feeling relieved that I remembered such an important call, I started thinking about everything else that I had to do, getting myself even more upset. And on and on it goes until I started feeling sorry for myself.

For many people, there's no limit to how long this type of "thought attack" can go on. In fact, I've been told that many people spend their days and nights going through this kind of mental rehearsal. I am one of them. By and by, I've learned how to control it. Instead of obsessing on my upcoming day, I stop my train of thought before it has a chance to get going. And then I can focus, not on how overwhelmed I am, but on how grateful I am for remembering something that needed to be made or done. If it's in the middle of the night, I type it on my pocket PC and then go back to sleep.

I may indeed be a busy person, but I remember that filling my head with thoughts of how overwhelmed I am only exacerbates the problem by making me feel even more stressed than I already am.