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Racing Thoughts

Racing Thoughts

 

We all have those times when our mind seems like it’s in overdrive. Either we have random thoughts popping in and out or we focus obsessively on one thing, replaying it in our head over and over again.

 

The most common cause of these racing thoughts is usually anxiety or worrying. People who struggle with these racing thoughts are often worried about what needs to be done, what hasn’t been done, what might happen if ….. etc. Or they obsess on things that have happened in the past and they can’t change.

 

I like to think of worrying as ‘negative goal setting’. People either worry about:

  • A future event
  • It hasn’t happened yet and may not happen
  • The more you think about it the more energy you give it
  • That energy builds up and makes the event more likely to happen
  • A past event
  • It happened in the past so you can’t change it now
  • The more you think about it the more energy you give it
  • Focusing on that energy increases the chances that it will attract more of that energy to you in the future

 

How to handle racing thoughts

Use these strategies to help reduce racing thoughts and get your energy focused back on what is really important.

  1. Breathing
  • As I talked about in a previous blog, the relaxation response is a great way to reduce stress, anxiety and worrying
  • Take a few minutes to focus on slow abdominal breathing, counting each breath

 

  1. Be mindful
  • Focus on one calming thing instead of multiple things, or count your breaths
  • This gives your mind something to do other than focus on other thoughts

 

  1. Permission
  • Give yourself permission to experience the thoughts
  • Acknowledge that they are just noise
  • Ask yourself “how important is it really, in the grand scheme of things?”
  • This will give you some feeling of control and make the thoughts easier to manage

 

  1. Move your body
  • Exercise helps diffuse anxiety
  • Take a 5 minute walk outside, do some body weight squats, push ups, jumping jacks
  • Exercise breaks the thought cycle, brings oxygen into the body and gets blood moving to other parts of your body

 

  1. Distract yourself
  • This ties in with move your body above
  • Say something like “here I go again with these unhelpful thoughts.”
  • Listen to some music, read something
  • This also breaks the thought cycle

 

  1. Worry time
  • Schedule some time in your diary specifically as ‘worry time’, like you would exercise time
  • If thoughts pop in unannounced, say to yourself ‘thanks for the thought but I’ll think about you in worry time’
  • By doing this you keep your schedule flowing with important things, knowing that you can worry about the other things later

 

So next time your mind is racing with unhelpful thoughts, use some of these techniques to get yourself back on track.

 

 

Yours in good health

 

Brad Corbett

Osteopath

Personal trainer

Holistic exercise & lifestyle coach