Today’s challenge was to treat our negative thoughts as stories and give them a name. I’ll give you an example: I was walking down the street and there was a class of schoolkids walking towards me and I thought “Oh no, they’re going to say something about how I look. Kids are too honest.” I caught myself thinking this and thought “Ah, the everyone’s out to hurt me story.” I said it sarcastically, which I think I wasn’t supposed to do, but I can’t fight my sarcasm.
I like the idea of this technique. It’s like I have an imaginary friend reminding me that my thought’s are not real. I kind of want to give him/her a name now that I think of it. I’ll call her Britney (after Britney Spears – she got back up after having a breakdown so she’ll be my imaginary ACT buddy). I didn’t notice any benefits other than the formation of Britney, but I’m hopeful I can condition myself to reap some benefits. See, my mistake was, I was hoping to numb my thoughts. Therefore I was disappointed when it didn’t work.
Also, I did 10 deep breaths today, where I focused on my breathing and observed my thoughts. This is my first day of 5 doing deep breathing (twice a day), then I can move on to learn more.
Tomorrow is a day I have been dreading. Thanking my mind for producing a constant stream of thoughts (even the negative ones!) How am I going to do this without being sarcastic? This will be interesting…
Meet Britney. Created using Marvel’s Create Your Own Superhero
