Thought Stopping.

Thought Stopping Instructions.

1.  Write down several distressing, useless thoughts that have become to be a habit and are hard to stop.

Ask yourself are these thoughts serving any purpose, are they hard to control, are they upsetting, would I be a lot happier without them, what could I be doing if I was thinking all the time about these.  If you answered yes to the above questions, then this thought stopping technique could prove to be very effective for you.

2.  Close your eyes and bring into your imagination a situation in which the stressful thought is likely to occur.  Try to include normal thoughts as well as the stressful one.  In this way, you can interrupt the stressful thoughts while allowing a continuing flow of healthy thinking.

3.  Thought Interruption can be accomplished initially by using one of two "startler" techniques:

Set an alarm, stopwatch, egg timer for three minutes.  Look away, close your eyes and concentrate on your stressful thought as described in step 2.  When you hear the ring, shout "stop".  You may also want to snap a rubber band worn around your wrist, pinch yourself or snap your fingers.  Let your mind empty of the stressful thought and carry on with normal thoughts.  Set a goal of about thirty seconds after the stop, during which your mind remains free of the stressful thought. If the upsetting stressful thought returns during that time, shout "stop" again.

Tape record yourself loudly saying "stop" at different intervals ie: three minutes, two minutes, one minute.  You may find it useful to repeat the taped stop messages several times at five second intervals.  Do the same setting your alarm etc.  The tape recording shapes and strengthens your thought control.

4.  Now take control of the thought stopping cue without the timer or tape recorder.  While concentrating on the unwanted thought, shout "stop" and snap your rubber band or pinch yourself.

When you succeed in getting rid of the thought on several occassions with the shouted command, begin interrupting the thought with a "stop" in a normal voice.

After succeding in stopping the thought by using your normal speaking voice, start interrupting the thought with "stop" spoken in a whisper.

When the whisper is good enough to stop stressful thoughts, imagine hearing "stop" shouted inside your mind.  Tighten your vocal chords and move your tongue as if you were saying "stop" out loud.  Success at this stage means that you can stop thoughts alone or in public without making a sound or looking silly!

You may feel silly practicing these methods but trust me they really work!!

Eye Movement Technique.

This is another method of stopping stressful thoughts.

1.  Focus on a reoccuring stressful thought, image, or memory that upsets you.

2.  On a scale of 0 - 10, with 0 being complete relaxation and 10 being extreme distress, rate your level of stress while thinking about the stressful thought. If you find your level of stress is higher than a 6, try reducing your stress level before beginning this method.  To do this, try one of the eliminating stress methods mentioned on another page, until your stress level is between 5 and 6.

3.  Once your stress level is between 5 and 6, keep your head still and quickly move your eyes back and forth between two focal points twenty to twenty five times.  You can move your eyes between tow corners of a room or window.  As soon as you start moving your eyes, stop concentrating on the stressful thought, event and let your mind go blank.

There will be many situations in which moving your eyes quickly back and forth is not acceptable, but if you close your eyes and do it, it's not as noticable.  This way others will just think you are resting your eyes. 

As soon as you have finished quickly moving your eyes, test your stress level again between 0 -10. You will probably find that this method has significantly got rid of or lessoned the level of stress when you think about the thought, event.

As you do more practice sessions of this, your stress level will reduce even more.

Repeat these steps above whenever the stressful thought reoccurs, its thought stopping effect will get stronger each time you practice!!

Sounds good yes!! Try it out!