Select Page

Unwanted thoughts

Human mind is a bundle of mystery and it has remained an unexplored Pandora’s Box for many centuries now. Mind is such a complicated element that it makes us live under its control most of the times. Bringing our minds under control appears to be a Herculean task imposing a sense of heaviness in us every time we try to do the same. We immediately tend to give up the effort yielding to the whims and fancies of the mind. The main reason why our mind exerts compelling levels of influence over us, is its relation to our neural system. Our neural system is directly associated with mind and its processes. In fact, the neural system and the working of mind is more of a vicious circle that creates mental chaos all the time.  This complicates human thought process in a huge manner affecting many aspects of our life in a constant manner.

Psychological basis for Unwanted Thoughts

The field of Psychology terms ‘Unwanted Thoughts’ as ‘Intrusive Thoughts’. Owing to the fact that unwanted thoughts have a direct co-relation to our nervous system, they act as pointers to the psychological disorders one experiences. Unattended to for prolonged periods of time, they can cause mental aberrations in people. Such thoughts may have their origin from many aspects of human life. The mind keeps throwing Unwanted Thoughts as a result of aggressiveness experienced or witnessed by people earlier in life.  Many a times, they may be associated with the religious belief system of individuals. Sexual aspects of life may trigger unwanted thoughts which can be totally devastating and mind shattering.

Different kinds of feelings experienced by people from time to time give rise to unwanted thoughts. Unfortunately, thoughts do not trail in a fixed path since they are the cognitive activities triggered by the mind. The extent of cognitive activity decides the levels of their interference with our day to day life. The main characteristics of unwanted thoughts are that they are unwanted in nature which recur in an uncontrollable manner and are mostly self related. Extreme levels of Unwanted Thoughts results in psychiatric disorders like Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety.

Examples of some unwanted thoughts are given below just to enable oneself relate to the concept

  • A happily married women thinking about wild sex with another man
  • Harming one’s own self or children
  • Running wildly in places you have never visited earlier in life trying to escape from people you have never met before.

Why do unwanted thoughts come in the mind of even the highly motivated?

People who are highly responsible tend to be meticulous in all aspects of life. They exhibit a positive outlook towards life at all points of time. They have amazing levels of focus on their goals. They keep moving forward to achieve the set goals within the set time frame. Such people live their dreams in a vivid manner that they keep haunting them every passing second.

Astounding levels of passion for achieving their dreams makes highly motivated people afraid of failure in achieving the same. Fear of failure starts haunting them so much that they tend to become more cautious in all their thoughts and activities pertaining to their dreams. This fear makes them mentally loaded round the clock just to ensure that they succeed in achieving the same. While many manage to convert this fear in to fire, some stumble on their way making the fear become a ground reality.



Can we really control our thoughts to a manageable level, if so, how? 

As humans, we experience mortifying thoughts purely due to the mysterious ways the mind functions, ignoring the natural innocent self of humans. Many such thoughts are unmentionable owing to the horrid and secretive nature of theirs. Can we really control our thoughts to a manageable level? The happy news is, yes, we can control our thoughts to a manageable level by adopting certain strategies. Let us discuss in detail about these strategies in the next section.

How to get rid of unwanted thoughts?

Getting rid of unwanted thoughts that disallow us to perform to our fullest potential can be a real freedom. Below given are some tips which will fetch this freedom if practiced in a meticulous manner.

  • The moment unwanted thoughts start haunting you take the leash in your hands. Issue a direct command ‘STOP’ and keep saying that in a firm manner till the thought really stops. With focused practice and conscious effort, the unwanted thoughts stop immediately on releasing the command.
  • As soon as you start getting the unwanted thoughts you fear of, swap the same with a positive one in an adamant manner. Refuse to give up. Forcibly think about some positive happenings in your life till the unwanted thoughts are driven away.
  • Observe the unwanted thought and store it in your memory so you can share the same later with a person who is highly objective. Sharing it with an unrelated person will diffuse the intensity of unwanted thoughts to a great extent. This will stop it from recurring.
  • Switch to some other mode that is possible at the time of getting haunted by unwanted thoughts. For instance, if you are taken over by unwanted thoughts during night times, do something you are passionate about, from within the internal environment you are in. Handling the same during the day time is easier since the switching over options you have in front are innumerable.
  • Silent yourself when unwanted thoughts try to take possession of you. Hear to your favorite music or indulge in creative visualization which may even be just a passionate hug with your dear one.
  • Remember, unwanted thoughts are basically caused due to fears your subconscious mind has stored in a secretive manner. These fears might have got created due to any gory life experience. Face the reality when unwanted thoughts start haunting you. Think about the maximum possible damage that the situation displayed through the thoughts can cause to you in reality. This will automatically diffuse the seriousness that such thoughts try to permeate in you.
  • The last technique to get rid of unwanted thoughts is to transfer the mess from your head to a paper. As long as the negative impressions of the unwanted thoughts are in your head, it keeps creating chaos. Make the paper take the load and you will feel relieved to a great extent.
  • As the legendary philosopher & motivational speaker Jim Rohn said “Transfer your mind into your journals, it will create space between your thoughts and your mind, and in that space, you can find the solution to all your problems”.

 

Written by Rama Ramji edited by SiteMaster

 

css.php

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This