Feeling caught up in your thoughts?

A simple starter practice from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Our thoughts can seem so convincing at times, we easily get caught up in them.

That's no surprise, especially since we've been relying on our thoughts every single day of our lives.

This is so much so that we treat even the most unhelpful thoughts as ones we must believe in and act upon.

"I'm a failure"

"Things are hopeless"

"I am broken"

When we fuse to such thoughts, they can really feel like reality. And it's a rather hopeless form of reality at that.

Since they make us feel so terrible, we struggle with them with all our might each day.

We want to get rid of them, as well as how they make us feel and act.

Yet, as you already know, it's not easy to tell our mind to "stop thinking".

It's just going to get louder and louder.

And you're going to get even more frustrated and exhausted.

Instead, how about trying to "DEFUSE" from such thoughts.

Instead of absolutely believing in our thoughts, learn to gain distance from them.

See them as what they are.

They are mere thoughts that we don't need to act upon or struggle with.

Yes they are there sitting in your head, but you don't have to struggle with them or listen to them.

You can simply let them play on, much like a radio going on in the background (In ACT we call this the "doom and gloom" radio.

Even though a song you dislike is playing on the radio, you can still carry on doing other things in your life right?

So know that even with these unhelpful thoughts, you can still spend your day well today. At that, have you thought about what really matters to you - what do you really want to do with your time and life today?

Act in service of your values (another core part of ACT), you can't go wrong with doing that.

Then let that radio play on - knowing you don't have to pay attention or respond to it - cause it's much more important to do what matters to you.

Okay?

You've got this,

Hernping