My Own Voice And Thoughts

By Stanley Popovich

 It can be tough for people with OCD to have to experience obsessive thoughts that are intrusive, scary, and difficult to manage. As a result, here is a short list of techniques that a person can use to help manage their obsessive and fearful thoughts.

The first thing a person must do is not to dwell or focus on the fear provoking thought when it comes. The more a person tries to reason out the thought or focus on the fear behind the thought, the stronger the thought becomes. The next time you encounter an obsessive thought, get into the practice of not dwelling on it.

From my interviews with various professionals, I’ve learned that usually it is the fear behind the thoughts that gets us worked up. Ignore the fear behind these obsessive thoughts, regardless how the strong the fear may be. If you ignore the fear behind these thoughts, then the thoughts become easier to manage.

A person should visualize a red stop sign in their mind when they encounter a fear provoking thought. When the negative thought comes, a person should think of a red stop sign that serves as a reminder to stop focusing on that thought and to think of something else. A person can then try to think of something positive to replace the negative thought.

Sometimes, a person may encounter a lot of scary thoughts coming at them all at once. Instead of getting upset, remember that these thoughts are exaggerated and are not based on reality. Even if your fearful thoughts tell you otherwise, the fact is that there are circumstances and factors in every situation that can not be anticipated. We may be ninety-nine percent in predicting the future but all it takes is for that one percent to make the biggest difference.

Although I am a Layman and not a professional, I have interviewed many counselors and I learned that there are many ways to deal with these kinds of thoughts. There are ways to deal with your obsessive thoughts and with the proper treatment, you can live a productive life.

Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear” an easy to read book that presents a overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com

Thoughts

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By Sarah Maria

 Have you ever spend endless hours in thought, pondering an important decision and felt a consistent pain in your stomach? Do you ever notice yourself having critical thoughts and feel a corresponding tightness in your chest? When you’ve been happy, excited, or thinking positive thoughts, have you noticed how your whole body felt relaxed?

The average person has between 12,000 and 50,000 thoughts per day. And these thoughts can have profound effects on our psycho-physiology.

Thousands of years ago, the Buddha pointed out that our thoughts determine our experience of the world. He was the original cognitive therapist, explaining that our beliefs had the power to enslave us or enlighten us. The ancient Indian medical system of Ayurveda also teaches that our biography helps create our biology.

Whatever we think, feel, and experience, helps to create our reality.

These ancient teachings have been continually confirmed through western medical science. Dr. Candace Pert, an internationally recognized psychopharmacologist and author of Molecules of Emotion, explains “The nueropeptides and receptors, the biochemicals of emotion, are the messengers carrying information to link the major systems of the body into one unit that we can call the body-mind. We can no longer think of the emotions as having less validity than the physical, material substance, but instead must see them as cellular signals that are involved in the process of translating information into physical reality, literally transforming mind into matter.”

Our thoughts and emotions can profoundly impact our health. Dr. Pert further writes “Because the molecules of emotion are involved in the process of a virus entering a cell, it seems logical to assume that the state of our emotions will affect whether or not we succumb to viral infections.” She goes on to explain that “. . . the chronic suppression of emotions results in a massive disturbance of the psychosomatic network.” Therefore, “The key is to express it and then let it go, so that it doesn’t fester or build, or escalate out of control.”

An amazing pictorial representation of how our thoughts create and influence our reality involves water — plain old water. Writer and researcher Masaru Emoto, who lives and works in Japan, decided to photograph the crystals formed when water freezes. Emoto found that crystal formation seems to reflect the words, music, or actions that water is exposed to as it freezes.

Emoto and his colleagues wrote different words on paper, and then taped them onto bottles of water. They then froze the water and observed the crystals that formed. When water was exposed to the words “thank you,” a beautiful hexagonal shape appeared.

Conversely, when the water was exposed to the words “you fool,” no crystals formed and the frozen water looked like a misshapen lump of ice.

Emoto’s photographs offer a pictorial representation for Dr. Pert’s findings. We are mostly water, and it seems not impossible that we can and do influence this water, and therefore our bodies, in either positive or negative ways. According to Emoto, “The vibration of good words has a positive effect on our world, whereas the vibration from negative words has the power to destroy.”

Sarah Maria is a body-image expert and personal empowerment coach who helps you love your body no matter how it looks.

Get Sarah Maria’s $27 e-book for FREE by clicking here: “5 Steps to Loving What You See in the Mirror”

Thoughts

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