Obsessive thoughts are the real cause of almost all your anxiety. Every single time you’ve had severe anxiety it started with an obsessive thought, and it spiralled out of control and eventually became the severe anxiety you felt or the panic attack you had.
If you think this isn’t how it works with you and that your obsessive thoughts AREN’T the cause of your anxiety, start paying attention to how and what you’re thinking before your anxiety increases.
Most people are staggered at the results when they study themselves in this way, and I think there’s a good chance you will be as well. And there’s a good reason why I can predict this kind of outcome: because for many years (almost 20, in fact) I lived with exactly the same problems you’re living with right now.
Sadly, if you live 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 stop all these damaging thoughts before they go on to be obsessive thoughts.
I’m about to give you a brief, 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.
Step #2: People with no anxiety problems drop a harmful or negative thought after a few seconds, and that’s why it doesn’t cause them anxiety. You need to become like them. And since the only way to stop one thought is by having ANOTHER thought, you need to think something else as soon as you detect any of these harmful thoughts. What should you think of? Anything – whatever it takes to stop that original and harmless thought.
Okay, step three is to make this new positive way of thinking a habit that happens automatically, just as your harmful thoughts are happening automatically for you right now. The only way to make this happen is to think positive thoughts as frequently as possible. In time, your mind will automatically think these positive thoughts when your mind wanders, where once it would have gone immediately to the damaging thoughts you experience right now.
I truly believe that if you can use and stick to these 3 steps that your anxiety and panic and obsessive thoughts will be in better shape than they’ve been for many years.