Eliminating the Mental Clutter

As i have posted about many times i suffer from chronic depression.  While i am on maintenance drugs i do get the occasional negative thought.  The most common, and outrageous depressive thoughts i end up having are typically when i have a cold or when i have a stressful or embarrassing event.

Just a pretty silly one for example, everyone hates colds.  While they are definitely less than fun they are more of a nuisance than of any real health concern.  That being said when i am deep in the throws of that stuffy nose and sore throat i tend to get thoughts like “OH GOD! I’m going to die!”  Obviously a cold is not going to kill me (unless i was about 120 or had an immune system deficiency, which I’m not and i don’t) so at times like these i employ some of the following techniques to remove the negative thoughts from my mind.

• My Brain is Lieing to me! – This is a big one.  Even if you do not suffer from some sort of mental disability your brain can still lie to you.  I can’t think of a single individual who when going through a breakup doesn’t think “No one loves me, i am going to be alone forever!”  While we all know this is not the case, when you are deep in that situation you genuinely believe you will be alone forever.   The way the brain works is pretty crazy, the more you have a thought, the more you are likely to have it again.  That means every time you think something negative you reinforce that thought and make it more likely to recur.  So when i have these negative thoughts repeatedly i remind myself that it is just my brain creating a negative feed back loop of bad thoughts, and than i move on to one of the other techniques
• Think of Something Else – This may seem easier said than done.  But i do have a few tricks up my sleeves that help me stay positive, or neutral.  As i said before the more you think about a specific thought the deeper it becomes logged in your memory.  That makes it very important to get your mind off of whatever is upsetting you and onto something else.  Most people suggest you do something else, but i think it requires more than that.  While just doing something else is fine, doing something else that engages you mentally is even better.  Logic puzzles, sudoku and crosswords all engage the mind and require your attention.  While these may not be fun activities, they are guaranteed to give you some reprieve from the negative thoughts.
• Count your breathing – so, you tried sudoku, and were bored to tears?  well that’s okay, this one i find helps a lot to.  I have two different techniques that you can try.  The first one is simply count your breathing.  You will be so busy breathing in for 4 seconds and than out for 4 seconds that you wont be able to focus on the negative thoughts.  But, if you are like me and get weirded out when you pay so much attention to your breathing i have another one that works just as well.  I imagine my mind as a giant circle similar to that of a sumo-wrestlers ring.  However rather than filled with large men in underwear there is simply a a large ball of light.  The rules are a bit different than sumo wrestling also.  The ball of light simply moves around the edge of the ring protecting it and keeping it empty.  whenever a thought attempts to enter the circle it bounces off the ball of light and out of your mind.  This helps you prevent a negative thought from fully forming and being reinforced.
• Write it down – For some people writing down the recurring negative thoughts can be helpful.  By putting it into written form you can fully grasp that the thoughts are not true.  In addition this gives you a great time to list things that are true that contradict that negative thought.  For example using the example from when i have colds i might write that i had gotten over my last cold, how my stuff nose was not as bad as the day before and how after a nap i felt significantly better.  This not only removes the negative thought from your mind but forces you to think positive thoughts.  And just like the brain does with negative thoughts, the more happy thoughts you think now the more there will be in the future.

What techniques do you use to clear out your mental clutter?