By Ahsan
Are you one of the 7 billion people on the planet who experiences anxious thoughts?
Do you get concerned about your health?
Does meeting new people cause your tummy to turn?
When your boss calls you for a meeting, do you get a sinking feeling?
If so, consider yourself normal because every person on the planet feels anxious at one time or another. The exciting thing is, however, some of us have learned how to contain their anxious thoughts while others let them run wild.
It comes with a price because the anxious thought dominates them.
My friend, life is hard enough. Don’t live that way.
"Easier said than done," you say? I couldn't agree more.
Let’s give it the old college try, shall we?
Here is a common situation many people experience:
It goes something like this. Your thoughts cause feelings that further cause actions. For example, you dread meeting new people, the thought of going to an event makes you feel nervous and unsettled, and due to the feeling, you decide to skip the event altogether and miss meeting some really cool people.
How do you overcome this?
The Usual Strategy: Respond vs. React
You have probably heard of the idea of responding to a situation or thought as an ideal way to handle anxious thoughts. Rather than react to your thoughts of "I don't like meeting new people because I feel nervous when I do," why not consider responding to your thought with a counter thought? Be like Bruce Lee, flow with the river, become like the water!
The Ninja Counter Thought: "I do feel nervous when I meet new people, but I also get past that feeling quickly because most people are nice and meeting people gives me a good feeling!“
The idea is to accept the intruding and debilitating thought and not deny it. Just don’t give it power. Challenge the damn thought, okay! Add in whatever logical override that comes to mind because you need to do this if you are ever going to diffuse your bullying thought.
So is this the good news?
No.
Here it is: Interpretation is your key to turning anxious thoughts into passing thoughts.
The good news is that you, my friend, can and should interpret life events, challenges, tragedies, hardships and most of all, scary thoughts any way you like.
You can look at a windy day as a nuisance or as a great day to fly a kite.
You could look at flying eight hours in a plane, as a scary experience filled with potential danger or you could see it as a short flight and look forward to spending time with your favourite cousin whom you haven’t seen in four years. You could interpret any situation or thought as you like.
Try to use this acronym to remember your new strategy:
MRI
Get an MRI:
Most Relaxing Interpretation: Interpret life in the most relaxing way. Don’t jump to conclusions and quick judgments about things. Find a way to interpret the situation or difficulty in a way that is most empowering. Look at it from a point of view that creates a sense of relaxation rather than anxiety. Interpret things; don’t react to them.
Easier said than done, I agree. And, like all things, practice makes perfect. Separate yourself from the billions of people who don’t know this good news.
Learn the skill of interpreting things rather than succumbing to anxious thoughts.
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