Are thoughts within our control?

The other night I was visiting friends in their apartment on North Terrace. I was out on the balcony sipping champagne and admiring the view. 10 floors below me was a man walking on the pavement.

My first thought was:

‘Oooooo… I wonder if I dropped this champagne glass would it hit him on the head?’

This folks, is what we call an ‘intrusive thought’. I get them all the time, and I don’t think I’m the only one.

Intrusive thoughts can be funny, mischievous, enlightening and sometimes scary, dangerous and soul destroying.

We can’t stop them popping into our head, but we can decide what to do with them.

Here are some questions to manage your intrusive thoughts

1.      Notice them objectively

‘Hmmm I’m having the thought that I’m going to stuff up this project’ Acknowledge and recognise that it is an intrusive thought and part of tour brain's ‘negative bias’ that is trying to protect us.

2.      Disassociate yourself from the thought

Instead of saying, 'I’m going to fail,' say, 'I’m having the thought that I’m going to fail.' This creates distance between you and the thought.

3.      Reframe and challenge the thought

Ask yourself, 'What evidence do I have for this?' or 'Is this thought really true?'

4.      Ask yourself ‘Is this a helpful thought?’

Is this thought helpful or harmful? Is it encouraging me to do better or is it just throwing up paper tigers to scare me?

5.      Take action

Worrying is future focused and based on ‘What if?’ Bring yourself into the present with ‘What now?’

One of the best antidotes to anxiety is action.

What action do you need to take because of this thought? Is there a risk you need to mitigate or do you recognise it as a random intrusive thought and dismiss it.

So... what is within our control?

How we respond to that thought and our resulting behaviour.

Something to think about, yes?