4 Ways to Control Thoughts That Can Cause Worry and Rob You of Enjoying Life

It is a common misconception that controlling one's thoughts must have religious and spiritual implications. Well, that is not true. Controlling one's thoughts can actually have daily and very practical implications and a person who is not religious or spiritual at all can also be benefited from it. For example, it is easy being worried about things in your life such as work or kids. You may find it difficult to give your best every day of your life because of the worries and tensions creeping up on you. Controlling your thoughts can help you lead a fuller life while getting rid of worry and stress.

Here are 4 ways to help you do it in your day-to-day life.

Spend 5 minutes each day being aware of your thoughts

This is something that will help you focus on being aware of your thoughts. When you do this for a particular time period every day, you give yourself the opportunity of sitting down with your thoughts but not doing anything about them. Being aware is one of the toughest things the mind can do so it may take a little practice for you to do it properly.

Break the cycle of worry-creating thoughts

The reason why you worry so much is because you are in a cycle of negative thoughts. To break the cycle of worry-creating thoughts, you have to be aware of the thoughts and stop yourself from thinking them. This may mean that you say 'Stop!' to yourself whenever you feel such thoughts coming into your mind. Breaking the cycle will make it difficult for such thoughts to develop again.

Think positively

Your mind does not like vacuum. That is why it is so difficult to practice meditation techniques which ask you to free your mind of all thoughts. However, when you fill your mind with positive thoughts, the negative and worry-creating thoughts don't have the space to enter it. Practice contradicting a negative thought with a positive thought every time you feel the former developing in your mind.

Acknowledge that not all your negative thoughts will come to existence

Yes, what you think about all day are just your perceptions and not all of them are true. It is easy getting worried about what may happen at work or how bad your family members are or what your best friend is thinking about you because you forgot her birthday. However, the truth is that most of these thoughts are creations of your mind and little else. They are not actually 'true'. When you realize that the majority of your thoughts are not true, you will dissolve a lot of your worries.