For example, if you keep thinking you might lose your job, your list could look something like this: 1. How will I be able to pay my bills and take care of my child? 2. What if I can’t find a new job? 3. I’ll be so embarrassed if I’m escorted by security out of the office with my belongings in a box. You’re going to begin your practice with the least-stressful thought.
You can stand up when you say “Stop” if you’d like or snap your fingers or clap your hands. These actions reinforce the “Stop” command and further interrupt your thought. Instead of using a timer, you can tape-record yourself shouting “Stop!” at one-, two- and three-minute intervals and use the recording to do the thought-stopping exercise. When you hear your recorded voice say “Stop,” empty your mind for 30 seconds.
This method will not stop unwanted thoughts immediately. What it does do is help “put brakes” on these thoughts and gradually lessen the hold they have over you. In this practice, there also has to be acceptance that these thoughts are here at present and to tolerate them. Thoughts can be very distracting, distressing, and when a person feels out of control about it, it is all the worse. But accepting the fact they are there, present, and to be less reactive about it actually helps them go away.
Accepting your thoughts, does not mean you have to like them or even agree with your thoughts. You simply have to accept them as part of your current reality. Allow them to exist and make no effort to try to control or change them. By doing so, you take away their power, and they begin to occur less frequently.
