Thought Control

[yoshilee]

Hello everybody,

i would be glad hearing some strategies/methods for thought control.

This is not especially about being in context with the use of subliminals, rather a general thing of handling disturbing or repetitive thoughts, which are just useless or having been there for countless times.

I am having progress in recognize my own thoughts, analyzing them a bit but controlling them at all seems so incredible hard to manage

Looking forward to some input though!

Enjoy your day.

[Determined]

As with anything coming from the subconscious mind "What you resist, persists. What you accept, you gain the power to transform"

Our thoughts have no real power over us, they're just thoughts. Sometimes, thoughts can be troublesome such as in the case of anxiety. In those cases it's important to break the pattern and then shift one's awareness to something else more constructive.

To give you an example, when I used to play poker, anytime I was down, I'd shift my awareness from me internally (where I'd be thinking about how much I'm down, to what I did wrong etc etc) and shift it outwards to the other players where I start observing how they play their game, what weaknesses they have, how they play their hands, what tells can I pick up and how can I exploit them. From here all the internal stuff just evaporates and I get back to what I really should be doing which is play top notch poker.

As in the example above, you'll note that you are not your brain. Your brain is a part of you. It's a tool designed for thinking, planning and sensing. So instead of being run by your brain, start running your brain for a change.

Should also note that when you give your brain a complex task like that, it no longer has any processing power to mull over whatever it is that was initially troubling you.

So the next time a repetitive (likely because you keep pushing it away) or disturbing thought pops in, first acknowledge and accept it. Then redirect your brain to something more constructive. You'll find, over time, this rewires your brain too. Your brain will be rewired to re-direct these thoughts into something constructive.

It should also be noted that there are "viruses of the mind". Every idea you've ever inherited is a "meme"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
Please read the first paragraph to better understand.

Your brain is a collection of memes. From strategy memes such as "drive through a green light and stop at red" to others. Whatever intrusive thoughts you have, have likely been picked up from somewhere. In the book "Virus of the Mind" Richard Brodie goes into depth about memes and how we can pick up memes which can be bad for us
https://www.amazon.com/Virus-Mind-New-Sc...1401924697

The solution in this case is to use mindfulness or meditation.

Hope that helps

[yoshilee]

Thank you @Determined,

that seems indeed helpful and a good task to feed the brain ?

[Greenduck]

For me it have become a habit to realize when I'm "spiraling" down into something negative and learn to pull myself out from it and just become present. The more I did it the easier it have become, meditation have been a good "training camp" for learning the skill!