a post by Michelle Maidenberg for the Thoughts of a Therapist blog [via World of Psychology]
Our humanness dictates our varied perceptions, evaluations, judgments, and expectations. These develop over time based on our physiology, history, and experiences. For some people, they perseverate or hyper-focus and complain that “they can’t get their mind off of ___.” Others overthink things and can’t stop “but-ing” themselves, while others chronically worry and/or have negative, dreaded, or pessimistic thoughts. Some others have racing thoughts, in which they experience their mind buzzing often. The quality of these thoughts may lead to restlessness, relentlessness, and intense feelings of concern, worry, fear, disappointment, and frustration.
Our mind’s level of chattiness varies from person to person. Because of the level of discomfort, there is often a struggle to avoid, get rid of, or “wish” that the thoughts and feelings ceased or never existed. This struggle perpetuates a mind loop where we end up challenged with having thoughts about our thoughts and feelings about our feelings. For some, this mind loop can be exhausting, painful and frustrating. It can be challenging to have self-compassion when all of that “noise” is surfacing causing us to question, defend against and desire to avoid ourselves.
You likely ask yourself or are asked by others to “stop” having the thoughts and feelings that you’re having. You’re expected to accomplish this by reciting “positive affirmations”, “thinking about something pleasant or positive”, or “thinking about something else.” You soon realize that there is no feasible method of “getting rid” of the thoughts and feelings, rather efforts can be made to decrease the intensity of distress so that life can be lived more meaningfully.
Our minds do what they do. It varies as to how chatty our minds are. It differs as to the degree to which we behave from our intellect (Pre-Frontal Cortex) vs our emotions (Amygdala). There is also variability as to how negative our thinking innately is.
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