Whenever you become aware that you do not like how you are feeling, whether it is a feeling of fear, worry or anxiety that creates a tightness in your chest. Or anger and irritation that results in a knot in your stomach, any feeling that is unpleasant, is a direct result of something you have been thinking about or a situation that has had your focus.
Thoughts that are negative always result in some level of unpleasantness in your emotions. Even those thoughts that are justifiable such as noticing something that went wrong, dwelling on a loss, someone else’s dishonesty or inappropriate behavior, the injustices of the world. Yes, these may be correct and accurate observations, and some of these are opinion based, while some are facts.
However, if they are negative, and they are complaints and something you don’t think is right or you don’t want. These topics and thoughts and conversations will have a stressful impact on the body and mind, and consequently will affect your mood and your health.
A key tenant of mindfulness is awareness without judgement, so I’m not saying that these thoughts and feelings are wrong, because they are natural and a part of being human. But if you are not feeling well and not functioning well mentally, emotionally, physically or spiritually, becoming mindful of the quality and nature of your thoughts, your beliefs, conversations and focus is an important step in improving your mental and physical health and creating well-being.
If you want to feel better, it is important to become mindful of what is going on in your head. This mindfulness technique has two aspects: being aware of how you are feeling in any moment and being aware of what you are focused on and thinking about.
When you are mindful that you do not like how you are feeling, stop and realize that your train of thought has been chugging down the tracks connected with boxcars that are loaded with negativity, fear, anger, sadness or whatever thoughts feel bad.
We all have to deal with our never-ending stream of consciousness or what I am referring to as our train of thought. We are thinking beings, full of thoughts.
Contrary to what a lot of us have come to believe, we can actually control our thoughts, because we can choose which thoughts, we want to stay on our train tracks, and which ones we want to derail. Admittedly, this does take practice.
When you need to stop thinking about something that is not serving you, and you know that’s the case, because you don’t like how you’re feeling, try this:
- Picture an image of a train and you are in one of the train cars or a box car and it is loaded with topics, memories that are unpleasant, uncertainties that are stressful, things of that nature. Whatever it is you were just thinking about that doesn’t feel good.
- Next, picture yourself sliding the door open and letting yourself out of that train car and safely returning to the train platform and let that train of thought exit the station far away from you.
- Imagine yourself sending those thoughts down the tracks.
- Follow this up with a few deep cleansing breaths.
- Now deliberately, intentionally decide what you want to load the next train of thought with, use this moment wisely and choose wisely.
- You may want to think about the task that is before you in the moment, whether that is eating your food, doing the dishes, reading the mail, watching a video. You may choose to become fully grounded in the here and now.
- Or you may choose to think about unrelated topics that are fun and enjoyable to indulge in. You may want to load those upcoming box cars, for example, with thoughts of traveling for fun and leisure, a recent funny conversation or a pleasant memory or a delightful story.
- Allow yourself to get into the details of these new box cars, that are loaded with a lighter, more uplifting or pleasant train of thought.
It may take a little bit of time and effort to do this, but you will be rewarded with better feelings, a better mood, better attitude and outlook. All of this ultimately leads to a healthier mind and body.
As I said before, this will take daily practice. You will want to set your intentions every day to practice this mindfulness activity, to help your train of thought to gather momentum in a direction that serves you.
Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean you will no longer have negative momentum and you will never again get derailed by negative thoughts, but you will become skilled at counteracting them and steering yourself in a better direction.
Give this train of thought exercise your time and attention and see for yourself.
All aboard! Chugga-chugga choo-choo!