Cyclical Thoughts Are Poison

Your thoughts are super powerful. They have the power to influence your mood, your outlook, your sense of worth, your decisions and collectively impact your life. 

It’s pretty wild, especially considering you likely go about your day with little awareness of what you are actually thinking and saying to yourself over and over, on replay in the background. 

Looping negative thought patterns are responsible for a lot of our distress. Reliving a conversation, a ‘what if’ scenario, a painful memory over and over does not serve you. 

You may be swindled into believing your thoughts are always helpful and logical - like the more you think about something, especially something that is bothering you or a problem, the better able you are to solve it, come to some conclusion, an answer will become clear or an epiphany will occur. And as tempting as that is to believe, it's not always the healthiest, most productive route to take. The truth is, your thoughts aren’t always helpful, meaningful or even true.

You are not a prisoner to your thoughts. It takes practice, but you can break cyclical thoughts and choose better ones. You can learn to be mindful of your internal dialogue, what you're ‘feeding yourself’ mentally, so that you are better able to regulate your mood, contentment and peace in any given moment. 

Pay attention to the thoughts that hum in your mind. The trick is to start recognizing the thoughts that come up repeatedly. Once you start noticing them, the next time a similar thought comes up you’ll be able to recognize it and pause.

1. Decide. Decide if you can do anything about the thought. If you can, figure out what you can do about this thought and make time to do it. If you can't do anything about the thought, practice number 2 and 3 below. 
2. Counter the thought. This is especially helpful when you catch yourself having a negative thought about yourself or circumstance. Counter what you were thinking about yourself or circumstance with an opposite, positive thought to replace it. This helps your brain’s neuroplasticity, helping to literally rewire neural pathways.
3. Choose a different thought entirely. When you are stuck playing a looping thought the best way to get out is to catch yourself then consciously choose to stop and think about something completely unrelated. Switch your thinking from ruminating on one thing to opening your mind back up to different thoughts to get yourself in a healthier headspace.