536: The power of redirection for working with anxious thoughts
In this week’s Anxiety Slayer podcast we’re talking more about working with unwanted thoughts and sharing practices to help you work with your mind to cultivate and grow more peace.
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Show notes from this week’s episode:
Sometimes thoughts just show up in our minds randomly. Those thoughts might be useful or not: they might be happy or sad, anxious, angry or fearful.
A key skill in managing anxiety is to take start redirecting your thoughts; when an unwelcome thought occurs, practice pulling your attention elsewhere.
Ayurveda on the mind:
The nature of the mind: it’s delicate, changeable and easily disturbed
The importance of not identifying with the mind: we are not our minds and that we can use our intelligence to observe and direct our thoughts.
You are not your thoughts. And you can choose new thoughts.
When an anxious thought springs up in our mind our default response is to chase that thought, even zoom in on it, and let it run riot in our mind and your body.
As the anxious thought grabs hold of the mind anxiety grows and feels worse and worse.
If you can catch the thought early, you can redirect it. One way to do that is to have another good thought or meditation readily available in your mind to switch over to.
Practice responding to anxious thoughts by changing the subject. Draw your mind to thoughts of gardening, crafting, baking, places you want to visit, thoughts of your friends, anything that feels engaging and uplifting to you.
Another tip that can really help is to train yourself to pick up a book and start reading as soon as your mind starts causing you discomfort.
You need to have a book already there, or a prayer, or poem, or mantra ready to go. And you start practicing every time an anxious or unwanted thought comes to mind.
You can learn more about Ayurveda’s teachings on working with unwanted thoughts in
our How to Calm Your Fragile Mind Course in the Anxiety Slayer Academy.
Let your intelligence be your doorman
What we feed on, feeds on us. We have to be proactive with our minds and choose between taking good care of ourselves and nourishing our mind with sweet thoughts and reflections or mentally whipping ourselves and causing more pain.
Whatever we put in our mind, our hearts, and our consciousness we have to digest and live on.
When we have to digest negative thoughts and events they can pull us into an ever-growing downward spiral.
Look for good mental nutrition
Overcoming anxiety, adversity, emotional pain etc starts with feeding ourselves well. Good company, inspiring reading, if you're too sick or tired to read, then hear audiobooks or podcasts.
Nourish your mind with coping skills, hope, and positive thoughts and uproot the brambles of resentment, hatred, and anger.
Keep practicing
Every time you do this you are putting your attention on growing better and healthier thoughts, bringing your focus away from the weeds of anxiety, fear, or perceived limitations.
It's a great way to start controlling your mind, and it really works for controlling anxious thoughts.