Thoughts are just thoughts

You can’t believe everything you think. Just because you think something doesn’t mean it’s true.

We’re usually super attached to and enmeshed with our thoughts. They’re a big old mess and that doesn’t feel so great or lead to positive thoughts.

We believe we *are* our thoughts and even worse, that we are stuck in the miserable prison that is our thoughts.

Let’s zoom out. From far away, with some distance, even a little, it’s more okay. Thoughts are just thoughts. Something you’re experiencing that is *part* of who you are, but not *all* of who you are as a person.

🧠 Thoughts are neural firings in the brain that come and go. Every thought you have ever had is not currently in your head, because thoughts do leave your mind, just as they enter it.

🤨 Try to cultivate more curiosity and distance from this process. Observe and notice your thoughts. Without trying to block or suppress them or control them out of existence. (That doesn’t work in the long term unfortunately. It’s like being told not to picture a pink elephant in the room. Building up a wall to keep a thought out tends to keep it in.)

The distance allows you to see them for what they are— just thoughts. Not facts. They might be: Helpful. Unhelpful. Pleasant. Unpleasant.

The distance then tends to disarm their intensity and they don’t stick around for as long. *Or* it positions you well to check the facts and possibly change your thoughts.

⭐️ Start by adding the phrase: “I am having the thought ___________” in front of your sticky thought and see what happens. Repeat it. You might even add: “I keep having this thought return into my mind that ___________.”

🌱 Does it change anything?