What to do not think bad. How to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and feelings

10.10.2023

Reading time 6 minutes

Negative thoughts, how to distract yourself? A person is what he thinks. In this article we will talk about how to distract yourself from negative thoughts. Here you will find the most effective ways to cope with obsessive thoughts that poison our lives.

Every person has periods in life when he is sucked into the abyss of negative thoughts, which sometimes turn into obsessive ones. We replay them in our heads over and over again. This poisons our lives, our mood deteriorates, we fall into depression and despair. Life becomes unbearable, devoid of joy.

An obsessive thought, like a projection of your fantasy.

We all know that thought is material. What always happens to us is what we think about, what we fear most. And when we get stuck in negative thoughts, life turns completely black.

Before we talk about how to overcome such thoughts, let's first understand why this happens to us. Why do we get hung up on bad thoughts and can't just let it go?

Obsessive negative thoughts are a kind of bad habit. A person understands that it is harmful to his health, but cannot get rid of it. Obsessive thoughts can bother a person for several days, and sometimes months. These may be certain fears, grievances, experiences, painful memories.

But what’s most interesting is that when time passes and these thoughts disappear, the person realizes that these thoughts did not pose any threat to him. Often, after a while a person realizes that the thoughts that have been poisoning his life for a long time are just dust and shouldn’t even be thought about.

Negative obsessive thoughts arise in a person’s mind involuntarily, against his will. A person is aware of pain, these thoughts are accompanied by depression and anxiety.

Causes of obsessive thoughts:

Most often, the cause of obsessive thoughts is stress. No matter how a person tries to forget a difficult situation, it is still reproduced in the memory again and again.
Obsessive thoughts can arise as a consequence of psychological trauma.
The cause may be severe fatigue and exhaustion of the nervous system.

Negative thoughts: how to distract yourself?

“You need not to get rid of thoughts, but to direct your attention to them: what they are about, immerse yourself in them and find the reason from which they come. Perhaps this is some event in your life that gives rise to fear in you... You need to figure out the reason. And then the “bad thoughts” will go away on their own.”
D. Krok Freeskiing

Give yourself compliments, praise yourself. As soon as a negative thought comes to you, start saying the phrase in your head: “Shut up immediately.” Then start complimenting yourself. This is the method of psychologist V.K. Nevyarovich, who described this method in the book “Soul Therapy”.
Having the right attitude will help you distract yourself from negative thoughts. Always say confidently: I can! I can do it!
Relaxation will help you take your mind off bad thoughts. You need to relax your body and have fun. Our body immediately reacts to negative thoughts. Wrinkles appear, the corners of our lips droop, we look 5 years older. Go for a massage, take a bath with aromatic oils, visit a beauty salon, go to the pool, get some sleep. Yoga and meditation will help you with this.
You can get rid of bad thoughts if you throw them out. Don't hold back your emotions, cry, shout out, or talk to a person you trust. In the process of talking through the problem, many things become clear and resolve themselves.
You can write down all your negative thoughts on paper and burn them. This is a kind of ritual of cleansing and letting go of the situation.
Imagine your thoughts very small. Squeeze them in your fist so hard that they crumble and scatter them in the wind.
The nature of the problem needs to be established. Analyze when problems with negative and obsessive thoughts began. You must clearly understand what is happening to you. There are no hopeless situations and your emotional state can be changed. Some people have been haunted by negative thoughts since childhood; this develops in them a general negative attitude towards themselves and the world around them.
To get rid of negative thoughts, you need to recognize your fears. Often your fears are instilled in you by your parents or others. You may have often been told: “You are a failure, you are poor, you have no talent, etc.” Such phrases sit in a person’s head, he begins to believe and feel in them and behave accordingly. To get rid of this kind of thoughts, you need to write down all your achievements and joys, even the smallest ones. This will show you what you really are and distract you from the bad thoughts in your head.
The main cause of obsessive thoughts is anxiety. People worry all the time about everything. These thoughts are exhausting, although often there is no real reason for concern. In this case, it is necessary to control the obsession, this means not talking about it, not allowing yourself to think about bad things. You can distract yourself from negative obsessive thoughts if you do something important, start singing or repeating the multiplication table in your mind.
The main reason for negative thoughts is the inability to be in the present moment. We can only worry when we think about the future and we are only upset by what has already happened, that is, the past. Therefore, in order to distract yourself from bad, restless thoughts, you need to not think about the future. Believing in yourself and having a positive attitude will help you take your mind off any negative thoughts.
Controlling your thoughts will help you not only to distract yourself from them, but also to get rid of them forever. You must understand that only you can help yourself. Write down on paper your greatest fear and what will happen if it comes true. For example, I won't be able to pay off my loan. What will happen? They will start calling and threatening. What will I do? I'll contact a specialist. Which will restructure the loan. What if they go to court? In this case, they will break the loan into parts, and it will be easier for me to repay it. Any problem can be analyzed and analyzed this way. Then it won’t seem so scary, because there is a way out of any situation.
Repeat the phrase in your head: “Everything passes and this will pass.”
Learn to correctly understand life priorities. There is nothing more important and valuable than your life. Everything else is dust that will dissipate and be forgotten.
Never compare yourself to others! You have your own life and your own life mission. You can gain experience from the example of successful people, but do not try on their lives. Envy is a source of obsessive dark thoughts.
Don't get stuck in the past! You must love and forgive yourself. It is no longer possible to change what happened, so why torture yourself. There is no need to remember failures. Concentrate better on what you can do.
Learn to control your emotions. You need to accept the situation in a neutral way, then any thought is perceived simply as food for thought. You yourself color situations with your emotions.
Learn to forgive yourself and your loved ones. If you received negative attitudes from your parents, you must understand that they simply did not know how to live differently.
To take your mind off bad thoughts, take yourself on an interesting project. You can draw pictures, start writing a book, develop a business plan. When a person is busy with something interesting, he does not have time to think about bad things.
Write plans for the future. Write down point by point what you want to do a month in advance. Planning will help you get rid of constant worry and take your mind off negative thoughts.
Psychologists recommend punishing yourself every time a bad thought comes to you. For example, put a rubber band on your hand and when a bad thought appears, pull it back and hit yourself with the rubber band on your hand. It sounds crazy, but our brain begins to understand that a negative thought will be punished, and such thoughts will be reduced less and less often.
Accepting a thought means ceasing to fight it. Learn not to drive away thoughts, but to find the positive aspects of your problem.
When negative thoughts overwhelm you, remember a time when you were happy. Keep this picture in your head and reproduce it every time a bad thought appears.
Think about it, maybe you have a secondary benefit from intrusive thoughts. For example, by constantly thinking about one situation, you avoid thinking about something else. Perhaps there are problems that are more important to you, but you are afraid to think about them. We need to recognize this disguise.
Very often, obsessive negative thoughts are the reason to consider yourself unhappy and this relieves you of some responsibilities. For example, a person believes that he cannot find a job until he gets rid of obsessive thoughts. This is a secondary benefit. Intrusive thoughts are an excuse. In fact, a person simply does not want to look for a job.
Obsessive thoughts cause a lot of stress, so to cope with them, you need to learn to relax with every cell of your body. Relaxation meditation will help you best.
If you believe in God, prayer for protection from bad thoughts will help you cope with a bad mood and relieve despondency. Take good care of your soul. Take care of spiritual purity, because any thought is material and it is the first step towards the abyss. Words of prayer have enormous healing power. Whenever you feel a negative thought overpowering you, pray.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many ways to work through, get rid of, or distract yourself from negative thoughts. The most important thing is to have desire and faith in yourself. If you cannot distract yourself from negative thoughts on your own, visit a psychotherapist.

Every person is susceptible to the influence of bad thoughts. They arise as a result of unjustified hopes, difficulties at work and similar life adversities. Negative thoughts quickly eat a person from the inside and drive him into prolonged depression. If action is not taken in time, there is a risk of losing yourself forever. Ultimately, a person stops enjoying life.

Method number 1. Analyze negative emotions

When difficult life circumstances arise, many people try in every possible way to hide them and do not give them due importance. This opinion is often considered erroneous. If you keep all the accumulated negativity inside yourself, sooner or later complete despair will set in. In this case, it is worth analyzing the pressing problems and trying to cope with them as soon as possible.

Control your thoughts. Take time to read psychological books aimed at expanding the subconscious. Fight negative thinking, try to extract positive emotions from what happened. Think positive, dream, no matter what. Human thoughts are material and have the pleasant property of coming true. The choice is yours - what to do, good or bad. Once you gain control over your mind, you will no longer allow bad thoughts to control you.
Find inspiration. In critical situations, a person despairs so much that he does not see a way out of the situation. Negativity literally breaks him, making him weak-willed. Believe me, there is always a way out! Remember the bright moments in your life when you were happy. Inspiration is the key to getting out of trouble. Think about how many things you haven't done yet and where you haven't been. Get the upper hand over bad thoughts, don't let yourself fade away. Do what you have long dreamed of.
Let your emotions out. Most often, despondency occurs with the departure of a loved one, a quarrel with family or friends, or difficulties at work. Try to throw out the negativity in one go. Remember pleasant and funny stories, give free rein to your emotions and let go of evil. You can’t return the past, you had a fight, so you’ll soon make up. And at work everything will return to normal, and there will be money. Be strong, live in the present, because life is beautiful. Feel free to cry sometimes, this way you relieve the nervous system and clear your mind.

Method number 2. Don't isolate yourself

Communicate. When experiencing difficult life moments, you should not close yourself off and isolate yourself from friends and family. In critical situations, consult a psychologist, state your problems and let them go. Don’t blame yourself for what happened, look for alternative actions to combat bad thoughts. Don’t isolate yourself from the outside world; communicating with new people will quickly correct your perception of life.

Look for allies. If possible, find motivated and positive people to talk to. This move will help develop your ego. Negative thoughts will fade into the background. Having found a new social circle, become an interesting interlocutor. Express your opinion, offer unconventional ideas, don’t be shy about emotions. Be more interested in the field of activity that affects you, share your personal observations and experiences.
Provide support to your family. Based on your personal experience of the difficulties you have experienced, be able to listen to your loved one. Talking about his pressing problems will help you forget the bad moments in your own life. Do more good deeds, help sick family members, take care of them, cook, buy medicine. Have warm evenings in a friendly company, communicate more on diverse topics.
Become a volunteer. Do noble deeds, look at people with disabilities. You will understand how insignificant your problems look against their background. After what you see, you come to the realization that you can do absolutely anything. Working in this field, people make interesting contacts and gain life experience from each other.
Pay attention to the little things. Go for a walk around the city on your day off. Concentrate on the little things, pay attention to the birds. Take a look around the buildings in the city center, you may have never noticed such exciting architecture. Relax, take a long walk like a tourist arriving for the first time in your city. Concentrating on external factors helps the brain work at a new level, overshadowing existing problems.
Enjoy the present. With the advent of negative emotions, a person moves away from friends and withdraws into himself. He thinks that by being left alone with the problem, he can deal with it much faster. This opinion is a grave mistake. If your friends invite you to visit or to an entertainment event, don’t hesitate and agree. Every time you leave home for a walk, you can meet interesting people and get a lot of positive emotions. A person quickly fades without society and a sense of his social significance.

Method number 3. Become a confident person

The reasons for bad thoughts can be different. If we are talking about problems related to work, financial difficulties or personal life, correcting the situation will not be difficult. First of all, don’t put everything on yourself. There are both bad and good periods in life, be prepared for anything.

Work on yourself. Decide in which area you work best. Take master classes and advanced training courses. Get a job in a new organization that will rightfully appreciate you. Improve yourself by gradually discovering new skills.
Develop your personality. Expand your consciousness with useful literature. Read history, psychology, sociology. If possible, start learning a foreign language, do it yourself with the help of audio lessons and your favorite films. This method will allow you to learn unfamiliar phrases much faster than memorizing a textbook or dictionary every day.
Don't depend on the opinion of society. When you are around familiar people, behave naturally. You shouldn’t constantly choose clever phrases, watch your hairstyle and clothes. Don't refuse to laugh heartily, be yourself. People will love you for your openness and simplicity of character. Those who don't like you will drop out over time. Spit on imaginary friends, they are unworthy of you.
Develop physically. Exercising and morning jogging have never harmed anyone. Physical activity has a positive effect on the overall psycho-emotional background. Perform the exercises conscientiously, the result will not be long in coming. Soon you will realize how self-confident you have become and will forget about past failures. Give up bad habits. Maintain a sleep schedule and proper diet.

Let go of thoughts about the past, you can’t go back to it. Live for today, develop, communicate, do not hold back your feelings and emotions. Find real friends, don't give a damn about those who left you. Become the person they look up to and don't be afraid to seek advice. You decide your destiny yourself!

Video: how to get rid of negative thoughts

Have you ever been in a situation where you just can’t get rid of obsessive thoughts about someone? What did he say or do and how much did it surprise or offend you? Sometimes when someone hurts us, our children or loved ones, gossips behind our backs or confuses us with their actions, we continue to think about it for hours, and sometimes even weeks.

You wash the dishes, drive the car, walk the dog, but you can’t forget how untruthful, angry or self-centered the words of your abuser were. His face and his words keep popping up in my head. Five hours, five days, five weeks later, he is still in your head - his face is in front of your eyes, even if you have never spoken to him all this time.

How to learn to avoid such situations?

How do you stop thinking about a person or an unpleasant incident - about what could or should have been done differently - when the same thoughts keep spinning in your head, rewinding and playing over and over again?

Maybe it's not the person. It's about what you got or didn't get, what you need, what you don't have, and what's wrong in your life. But most often we are tormented by thoughts about people who, in our eyes, are to blame for all this.

These thoughts poison our lives, because such experiences can cause both emotional and physical harm to a person. Research shows that toxic thoughts make our brains sick and unhappy. When our minds are constantly occupied with thoughts of bickering, hurt, or loss, it begins to marinate in a sea of harmful chemicals and stress hormones that are the catalysts for almost every disease in the world. Scientists are increasingly reporting that negative thoughts play a large role in diseases such as depression, cancer and heart and autoimmune diseases.

Moreover, it is simply unpleasant. It’s as if you’re being pulled into a rotating carousel, which is fun to spin around a couple of times, but then you start to feel sick and your head suddenly spins. You want to get off, but you can't.

We try very hard to avoid everything poisonous: we buy organic goods, try not to eat junk food, get rid of chemicals. We look for the freshest products, use organic cleaning agents and natural cosmetics. But despite all this, we pay very little attention to clearing our thoughts. How can you get rid of negative emotions and memories?

Choose the method that seems most effective to you and act!

Be silent and take a break. This will give you the opportunity to cool down a little, calm down and choose the most reasonable conflict resolution tactics. And sometimes, over time, what annoys us is forgotten on its own.
Wait and see what happens next. In conflict situations, very often you want to stand up for yourself and give your offender a worthy rebuff. This is why we worry so much about what to say or do in such cases.
Don't play the "Who's to blame?" game. Poring over events that happened in the past and trying to decide who is to blame (even if you blame yourself) is counterproductive. Bad things or misunderstandings most often happen as a result of a series of events. It's like a domino effect. The end result cannot be blamed on just one person. First one thing happens, then another, then a third. And so what happens happens.
Don't be influenced by another person's mood.
Start with the most important problem. Meditation teacher Norman Fisher says that no matter what happens to us, the main problem is always anger. It creates a cloud of emotions that makes it difficult to give a balanced and convincing answer. In conflict situations, the biggest problem is anger. Work on yourself - meditate, do gymnastics, go for a walk. Talk as little as possible and give yourself time to cool down. Do whatever you want - but before you deal with someone, deal with yourself.
Anger warps your mind. It is impossible to think clearly and seek creative and thoughtful approaches to solving a difficult situation if you are angry.
Don't try to understand the other person's actions. Ask yourself: If another person tried to understand what you were thinking or why you were doing what you were doing, how close to the truth would their guess be? No one but you knows what's going on in your head. So why try to understand what your interlocutor is thinking? Most likely, you will be wrong, which means that you are simply wasting your time.
Your thoughts are not facts. In other words, don't believe everything you think. Our body acutely experiences our emotions - fear, tension, anxiety or stress. We experience emotions on a physical level and often perceive our sensations as confirmation that our thoughts are fact.
How can I use this situation for personal growth? Meditation teacher and psychologist Tara Brach argues that by dwelling on anger, being offended by someone's words or actions, judging someone, and being angry at how we were treated, we add to our personal supply of suffering. Situation + our reaction = suffering. Dealing with our feelings and asking the question of why we are so affected by this or that situation and what these feelings say about ourselves is a great chance to learn something new about ourselves. Situation + reflections + mental presence “here and now” = inner growth. Focus on your inner development.
Never let others bring you down. Even to myself.
What happened has already passed. Remembering the past, we often try to understand what could have been done differently to prevent a quarrel and its unpleasant results. But what happened yesterday is as much in the past as what happened a thousand years ago or during the time of the Mayans. We can't change what happened then, and we can't change what happened a week ago.
Learn to forgive. For your own good. We are very devoted to our sorrows and thoughts about all the bad things that happened to us. Yes, it was. Yes, it was terrible. But is this really the only thing that shapes you as a person? We forgive others not only for their own sake. We forgive in order to free ourselves from our personal suffering, stop holding on to the past and move on with our lives.
Transport yourself to another space. Self-awareness teacher and psychologist Trish Magiyari recommends using visualization. Research shows that this method is very effective in helping to get rid of negative thoughts that inflame our minds. Personally, this image always helps me: imagine that you are at the bottom of the deep blue ocean and watch everything float by. Watch your thoughts dissipate.
Respond kindly to the offender. Here’s what healer Wanda Lasseter-Lundy advises you to do in situations where thoughts about your offender are driving you crazy: “Imagine how you send a beautiful ball of white light towards this person. Place it inside this ball. Surround him with rays and keep the light around him until your anger evaporates.”
Take a minute and a half break. To free your mind, you need to break your train of thought. Neuropsychiatrist Dan Segal states that “in 90 seconds, an emotion will rise and fall like a wave on the shore.” You only need 90 seconds to get out of any state. Give yourself 90 seconds—breathe in and out 15 times—to stop thinking about the person or situation that's upsetting you. This will help break the vicious circle - and with it the power that your negative thoughts have over you.

Well, are you feeling better now?

Content

A person may develop a condition in which false ideas and thoughts try to take over consciousness. They attack daily, becoming obsessive-compulsive disorder. This makes life very difficult, but there are ways to get rid of obsessive thoughts and fears. Without help, the condition will only get worse over time. It will become increasingly difficult to focus on really important things and find the strength to overcome problems in everyday life. Subsequently, depression sets in, bad thoughts, desires, and sometimes the disorder worsens to schizophrenia.

Why does obsessive-compulsive disorder occur?

The obsessive state of OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) occurs in cases where the mind is unable to suppress impulses to take any action. At the same time, they crowd out all other thoughts, even though they are meaningless or groundless at the moment. The persistence of these impulses is so great that they cause fear. The development of obsessive-phobic manifestations and obsessive neurosis is influenced by biological and psychological factors to varying degrees.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder has different manifestations, but they all boil down to the main symptoms of this nature:

repetitive actions, rituals;
regular checks of your own actions;
cyclical thoughts;
fixation on thoughts about violence, religion or the intimate side of life;
an irresistible desire to count numbers or fear of them.

In children

OCD also occurs in children. As a rule, the causes of development are psychological trauma. Neurosis develops in a child against the background of fear or punishment; this condition can be provoked by unfair treatment of them by teachers or parents. Separation from father or mother at an early age has a strong impact. The impetus for the obsessive state is a transfer to another school or a move. A number of factors in the field of family relationships that form a disorder in a child have been described:

Dissatisfaction with the gender of the child. In this case, qualities that are unusual for him are imposed on him, this causes high anxiety.
Late child. Doctors have discovered a connection between the mother's age and the risk of developing psychosis in the child. If a woman is over 36 years old during pregnancy, then the risk of anxiety in the baby necessarily increases.
Conflicts within the family. Often the negativity from quarrels affects the child, and he feels guilty. According to statistics, in families where a man actively takes part in upbringing, neuroses in children occur much less frequently.
Single-parent family. The child lacks one half of the behavior model. The absence of a stereotype provokes the development of neurosis.

In adults

In the older generation, the occurrence of obsessive-compulsive disorder is influenced by biological and psychological reasons. The first appear, according to doctors, due to disturbances in the metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is generally accepted that it regulates the level of anxiety by communicating with nerve cell receptors. The influence of living conditions and ecology is also taken into account, but the connection has not yet been scientifically proven.

Psychological factors manifest themselves in certain life shocks and stressful situations. These cannot be called the causes of neurosis - rather, they become a trigger for those people who have a genetic predisposition to the development of obsessive thoughts and fears. It is impossible to identify such hereditary characteristics of a person in advance.

Obsessive states

People with certain personality accentuations or those who have suffered psychological trauma are predisposed to an obsessive state. They are subject to involuntary intrusion of feelings, images, actions, and are haunted by obsessive thoughts about death. A person understands the groundlessness of such phenomena, but cannot overcome and solve such problems on his own.

The clinical signs of this condition largely depend on what caused the cognitive-behavioral disorder to worsen and arise. At the moment, there are two main types of obsessive thoughts - intellectual and emotional manifestation. They provoke human phobias and panic fear, which sometimes completely disrupt people’s lives and habitual rhythm.

Intelligent

Obsessive states of the intellectual type are usually called obsessions or obsessions. In this type of disorder, the following common manifestations of obsession are distinguished:

"Mental gum." Unreasonable thoughts, doubts for any reason, and sometimes even without it.
Arrhythmomania (obsessive counting). A person counts everything around: people, birds, objects, steps, etc.
Obsessive doubts. Manifests itself in weakened recording of events. The man is not sure that he turned off the stove or iron.
Obsessive repetition. Phone numbers, names, dates, or titles are constantly replayed in the mind.
Obsessive ideas.
Intrusive memories. As a rule, indecent content.
Obsessive fears. They often appear in the area of work or sexual life. A person doubts that he is able to accomplish something.
Contrasting obsessive state. The person has thoughts that do not correspond to typical behavior. For example, in a girl who is good and not evil by nature, images of bloody murder emerge.

Emotional

Emotional obsessive states include various phobias (fears), which have a specific direction. For example, a young mother experiences unreasonable anxiety that she will harm or kill her child. This type also includes everyday phobias - fear of the number 13, Orthodox churches, black cats, etc. There are many different types of fear, which are given special names.

Human phobias

Oxyphobia. The problem manifests itself in fear of any sharp objects. The person worries that he may injure others or himself.
Agrophobia. An obsessive fear of open space, attacks are caused by squares and wide streets. People suffering from such neurosis appear on the street only when accompanied by another person.
Claustrophobia. An obsessive problem is the fear of small, enclosed spaces.
Acrophobia. With this obsessive state, a person is afraid to be at heights. There is dizziness and fear of falling.
Anthropophobia. The problem is the fear of large crowds of people. A person is afraid of fainting and being crushed by a crowd.
Misophobia. The patient constantly worries that he will get dirty.
Dysmorphophobia. The patient imagines that everyone around him is paying attention to the ugly, abnormal development of the body.
Nosophobia. A person is constantly afraid of contracting a serious illness.
Nyctophobia. A type of fear of the dark.
Mythophobia. A person is afraid to tell a lie, so he avoids communicating with people.
Thanatophobia is a type of fear of death.
Monophobia. A person is afraid to be alone, which is associated with the idea of helplessness.
Pantophobia. The highest degree of general fear as such. The patient is frightened by everything around him.

How to get rid of obsessive thoughts

The psychology of fear is designed in such a way that obsessive states cannot go away on their own. Living like this is extremely problematic, fighting on your own is difficult. In this case, loved ones should help, and for this you need to know how to get rid of obsessive thoughts and fear. Support can be provided by psychotherapeutic practices or independent work on the advice of psychologists.

Psychotherapeutic practices

If the disorders are clearly psychogenic in nature, it is necessary to conduct therapy with the patient based on the symptoms of the obsessive state. Psychological techniques are used individually for each patient. Treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder can be done individually or in a group. To cure a person, the following psychological types of therapy are used:

Rational psychotherapy. During treatment, the specialist identifies the “trigger point” of the neurotic state and reveals the pathogenetic essence of the conflict. Tries to activate the positive aspects of the personality and corrects the person’s negative, inadequate reactions. Therapy should normalize the system of emotional-volitional response.
Group psychotherapy. The solution to intrapersonal problems occurs through the development of defects in interpersonal interaction. Practical work is aimed at the ultimate problem to resolve intrapersonal obsessions.

The degree of obsessive states may vary, so the presence of the latter is not a direct path to psychiatry. Sometimes people just need to figure out how to distract themselves from the bad thoughts that arise in the subconscious. To overcome obsessive fear and anxiety, you can use the following techniques:

There are a number of reasons that complicate the recovery process with obsessive fear. For some, this is due to lack of self-confidence and their strengths, others lack perseverance, and others completely expect that everything will go away on its own. There are a number of examples of famous people who, on the path to success, managed to overcome their phobias and fears and dealt with internal problems. For this purpose, psychological techniques are used to help a person remove obsessive fear from the path.

Psychological techniques

Fight negative thinking. This technique is called the “switch”, because the essence is to imagine your obsessive fears as clearly as possible, in detail, in the form of a switch and at the right moment simply turn it off. The main thing is to imagine everything in your imagination.
Correct breathing. Psychologists say: “Inhale courage, exhale fear.” Even inhalations with a slight delay, and then exhalations, normalize the physical condition during an attack of fear. This will help you calm down.
Action response to anxiety. A difficult practice when a person “looks fear in the eye.” If the patient is afraid to speak, then you need to put the patient in front of the public. You will be able to overcome fear through “drive”.
We play a role. The patient is asked to play the role of a confident person. If this state is practiced in the form of a theatrical game, then the brain at some point may respond to it, and the obsessive fear will pass.

The formula for mood, psychoemotional and psychophysiological well-being is simple: “As I think, so I feel”. However, some people have, as if automatically, many different negative, obsessive, sometimes bad and even bad thoughts in their heads, which, in fact, organize negative emotions, bad mood, sometimes obsessive (obsessive-compulsive), often bad behavior and physiological , autonomic reactions of the body leading to depression and.

Most of these emotionally distressed people would like to know how to get rid of bad, obsessive, negative and evil thoughts in your head in order to come to harmony within your personality, not suffer mentally and move towards success in life.

In psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, there are many different techniques and methods for getting rid of thoughts in the head, including obsessive, negative thoughts. Today we will look at how to use in practice, sometimes, perhaps independently, or with the help of a psychologist-psychotherapist, one of these techniques: “Social significance” or “Distancing”.

Find out how to get rid of negative, obsessive, bad and evil thoughts in your head using this psychotechnics

This technique for getting rid of negative, bad thoughts in the head is both simple and complex - at the same time. It’s simple because it’s easy to understand and master; it’s complex because in order for it to work and for you to get rid of your obsessive, bad thoughts in your head, you need to practice a little. Those. you need to have a real desire, motivation and be ready to work on yourself and your negative thoughts.

For that, those who learn to automatically apply it in practice, in life, will be given not only the knowledge of how to get rid of obsessive, bad thoughts in the head, but also the ability (skill) to get rid of grief, fears, anger, panic, etc. ., in various life situations.

So, the principles of the technique, how to get rid of bad (bad), obsessive, negative thoughts in your head

The principles of this psychotechnics are related to the “Depersonalization of Personality” method, i.e. the basis is how you perceive various events (situations) in your life and how and what you think (think).

Any life situation (event) has both a personal, subjective (internal), private meaning and a public, external, public one.
Personal significance relates to the intensity of the emotions you experience during an event - you are subjective about this. Social significance- this is the external interpretation of the event, from the point of view of observers.

The difference between the two can be compared to the difference between our reaction to suddenly bruising our own finger with a hammer and our reaction to seeing someone else fall victim to the same misfortune. The only way to change your negative, obsessive thoughts, which give a strong emotional component that leads to preconceived perceptions, is to learn to depersonalize (see) your inner beliefs - somewhat change your worldview, look at the world and this event from an objective point of view, from the outside.

A technique on how to get rid of your negative, obsessive, bad and evil thoughts in your head

1. You need to learn to differentiate between a perceived event and your thoughts about that event.

2. Look at the event from the perspective of social and personal significance. Social significance can be seen if you practice seeing the situation from other people's point of view. The event must be objectified. Remember that you already have a social outlook because throughout your life you have been able to observe others in a thousand different situations. Transfer your perception of other people onto yourself.

3. In order to transfer the meaning of events from the private to the public, you must learn to remove the following from your own perception: emotional variables, intense introspection, and certain metaphysical assumptions. Obviously, this cannot be achieved fully, but the closer you can get to it, the more objective your view of what is happening will be.

4. Once the concept of public meaning is understood, make a list of the main situations you have encountered and the public and private meanings for each.

5. You will first need to interpret the event from a public point of view, after you have automatically perceived it from a personal point of view. As you gradually develop, you will be able to bring the objective view of the event closer and closer to the time of its occurrence and eventually replace the personal perception with the public one during the event itself.

Examples of using techniques for getting rid of obsessive, negative (bad, evil) thoughts in the head

First example

1. Event: anxiety attack. Personal meaning: "I will die".

Public value: Adrenaline and other substances are released into the bloodstream.

2 Event: criticism by another person.

Personal meaning: “I must have done something wrong. I'm incomplete."

Public value: “Someone expresses their disagreement with what I did. The reasons for this are unknown."

3 Event: failure in a business project.

Personal meaning: “I’m incompetent, I’m a failure, I’m going down the ladder of success.”

Public value: “Planning and preparation were not effective enough.”

4 Event: lack of arguments.

Personal meaning: “I’m a weakling, a babble and a bore.”

Public value: “He knew more about the subject than I did and was perhaps more experienced in arguing.”

5 Event: few friends.

Personal meaning: “In essence, it is impossible to love me.”

Public value: “I don’t try to make friends and I don’t treat people very kindly.”

6 Event: failures in sports.

Personal meaning: “I’m not a worthy man.”

Public value: “I don’t have enough reflexes, training, practice.”

7 Event: became seven kilograms heavier than she was at 17 years old.

Personal meaning: “I forgot about self-discipline.”

Public value: “A 37-year-old woman and a teenager have different metabolic processes.”

Second example, getting rid of obsessive, negative (bad, evil) thoughts in the head:

Personal meaning human fear is a perception of the world when it seems that something terrible is about to happen and this must be avoided at all costs.

Social, objective meaning is that a real danger may or may not be present, and it is necessary to look at the situation and determine whether it actually exists.

People who need guidance in looking at danger from a social rather than a subjective perspective can use the following five principles.
In general, fear is objective if:

1. There is a real danger to the individual that can cause real harm. It is unreasonable to be afraid of monsters under the bed, since they do not exist, and what does not exist cannot harm us. (Some people are afraid of witches and warlocks).

2. The level of fear is equal to the level of possible damage. The fear of putting a small splinter in your heel would be unjustified, since it outweighs the potential danger. (Some individuals are afraid to behave immodestly in public.)

3. Fear corresponds to the likelihood that something bad will happen. If a person is afraid that a meteorite will kill him, then his fear will be irrational, because the probability of this event is too small. (Some people are noticeably afraid of such low-probability events as plane crashes, although it is clear that the frequency of car accidents is much higher.)

4. Hazard can be controlled. The fear of the sun going supernova is meaningless because the event is beyond human control. (Many people fear that they may have a hidden hereditary disease.)

5. Fear is useful if it manifests itself in a situation where it will keep a person on alert in the face of danger that can be avoided. (Being vigilant about having a "nervous breakdown" in no way reduces the likelihood of this happening.)

Help from a practical psychologist online in getting rid of obsessive, negative (bad and bad) thoughts and the emotions that accompany them.