Virtually all of your anxiety is caused by the obsessive thoughts you experience. Whenever you’ve had anxiety in the past, it started with an obsessive thought, guaranteed. And then it gained momentum and went on to become the anxiety-related problem you experienced or the panic attack you had.
Just in case you’re thinking that you’re the exception to this theory, let me encourage you to give this theory a chance by beginning to pay close attention to exactly what’s on your mind in the time before your anxiety gets out of control.
You’ll be surprised what you discover, because obsessive thoughts are at the heart of anxiety and panic in EVERYONE. I know this from talking and working with literally THOUSANDS of people who are just like you, and who are just like I was when obsessive thoughts were causing my own anxiety for 17 years.
Sadly, if you suffer with any anxiety disorder, it’s not possible to simply stop having an obsessive thought without thinking about it, like people who are naturally calm can. So the answer lies in discovering ways to intentionally end all these damaging thoughts before they go on to be obsessive thoughts.
I’m about to give you a quick, three-step plan of attack which you can start using right now to stop the thoughts you have turning into the obsessive thoughts that cause all your problems. Okay, here we go:
Step #1: You need to train yourself to be able to spot a damaging thought as soon as it starts inside you. So don’t ignore harmful thoughts, even when they seem small and harmless. Realise that these little thoughts can turn into big ones, and treat them like something you MUST stop.
Second Step: You need to become exactly like people with no anxiety problems. For them, it’s easy to stop a bad thought anytime they want to. For you, it takes a bit more work. The only way to stop one thought is by having another thought, so to stop the damaging thoughts you simply need to have a new thought that takes its place. You might be asking what you should be thinking. The answer is simple: think of anything it takes to stop that original and damaging thought.
Third Step: Your damaging thoughts usually begin when your mind is left to wander, or to daydream. This is how thinking these bad thoughts becomes a habit. By thinking these thoughts too frequently they start to happen on their own, and they creep up on you and do their damage. To stop this problem, there’s only one answer: creating a new default frame of mind, one that’s calm, positive, and pleasant. You do this by thinking good, positive thoughts as often as you can, so that this becomes the type of thinking your brain does automatically when you aren’t paying attention.
Start putting these 3 steps into action as soon as possible and your obsessive thoughts and panic-related problems will quickly be under control.
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