How to Control Your Thoughts: 10 Methods Worth a Try

Focus On Distractions

The normal trend when you are trying to remove your mind from certain things like one social error you committed is to get yourself distracted. The human mind will always wander around to search for interesting things to think about, hopefully, this will help leave you with peace of mind.

Distraction is known to work perfectly, but oddly enough, researches have shown that it is better to get yourself distracted with one thing, instead of allowing your mind to keep wandering.

This is due to the fact that a purposeless wandering of the mind goes hand-in-hand with unhappiness; it is always better to focus on, something like, a unique piece of music, a task or a TV program.

Suspend the Thought Until a Later Time

While continuously making efforts to keep a thought suppressed keeps bringing it back and making it stronger, it can help to postpone the thought until a later time.

Researchers have tried to ask those who have persistent anxious thoughts to postpone their worries until about a 30-day worry period. According to some studies, people find this technique as an effective way of suppressing their thoughts effectively.

To save up every one of your worries for a specific period of time and this may help keep your mind stay free from worrying thoughts.

Stop

You are your own boss when it comes to how to control your thoughts. Here, you must begin by simply sending a command to yourself to stop!. One direct command issued to yourself with a strong voice tone, will help interrupt the behavior, just like stopping you right in your track.

Store and Share

Storing your thoughts is one of the tips on how to control your thoughts, but it is not all of it. Storing it is not the main aim, but keeping it away until a time when you can re-access it, by sharing your thought with one very supportive friend, a colleague, a mentor or coach. Someone who has an outside view, a very objective view, one who can help you move ahead.

Paradoxical Therapy

Consider this for a while, rather than worrying continuously about. Say, something like imminent death of a loved one, you head right into worrying about death and focus on it.

It appears paradoxical that concentrating on a particular thought might make the thought go away, but some studies show that this works. It depends on the long-founded principle known as the exposure therapy: this is where, for instance, arachnophobes get slowly but definitely exposed to spiders, until their fears start fading away.

This is not the right approach for you if you are faint-hearted, but according to research, it can be quite helpful to rid yourself of every kind of negative thoughts when adopted by people dealing with compulsive behavior and obsessive thoughts.

Acceptance

In a related way, but not directly related, there are proofs that accepting any thoughts you do not want instead of trying to fight them can help you learn how to control your thoughts.

Find Time to Relax

You can either sleep or take a nap, to get your mind freed; you can sleep silently, or while listening to your favorite song, or slot in one relaxation track/CD, or video, with a guide that can help you think of some other thing and relax.

Try to Write About It

Contrary to self-affirmation, engaging in expressive writing-putting down your deepest feelings and thoughts-has been extensively tested and it has several psychological and health benefits (though with very few effects).

Writing about yourself in an emotional way, can help you remove negative thoughts.

Engage In Adequate Meditation

Whenever you find yourself relapsing into some past memories or saying things that are detrimental to your overall well-being, go with the simple steps outlined below:

• Find one very quiet spot where no one will distract you, sit down and shut your eyes (If it is easier, you can get your eyes shut).

• Bring in all the thoughts that make you feel frustrated or uncomfortable.

• Try connecting deeply with your emotions as if it is happening currently, take note of the very place where you feel it, hear it, see it, taste it, smell it.

• Once you feel the connection, pretend or imagine stepping away from the experience to see yourself there, like you are viewing yourself on one movie screen.

• Use your imagination once you are ready, push the screen away, as far across the room as possible, or across the next door, across the next city, into the river, into an entirely different country! Push it as far away as you can get it away from you to stop seeing it.

• Return to the room, ask yourself the color of your front door or engage in some fast jogging exercise right on the spot.

Consult a Professional

Find a good therapist or counselor. If you start feeling overwhelmed by the stream of random thoughts, you can benefit immensely from interacting with a therapist or counselor, in addition to engaging in exercises that are aimed at controlling your thoughts. Look for a trained therapist in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. The therapist should help you learn how to gain more effective control over your mind through adequate mind training.