4 Steps to Calm Our Busy Brains

Available for Interviews: Dr. Alice Fong

Alice Fong, ND, is an integrative naturopathic doctor specializing in stress, integrative medicine, diet & weight loss, and is a business growth consultant for holistic healthcare providers.

What Dr. Alice Fong can say in an interview
on Dealing With Difficult Thoughts:

Sometimes our minds become fixated on a thought that we become obsessed with, and it ends up causing us uncomfortable feelings such as stress, anxiety, fear, anger, or sadness.

Thoughts and feelings are normal to have, it’s part of being a human being.  

We can’t necessarily stop the thoughts and feelings from happening, but if we practice mindfulness, we can learn to develop an awareness of them and the impact they have on us, so they don’t have such a tight grip over us to the point where it wreaks havoc on our life!

Here are the 4 steps you can take when a persistent difficult thought keeps coming into your mind:

1. 1. Give yourself the space and grace to allow the thought to happen, don’t try to suppress or avoid it. This allows us to take a step back to observe the thought so we can look at it deeper and process it.
   2. Acknowledge the thought for what it is. . . “just a thought.”  Understand that your thoughts may not be true, real, or useful. When an uncomfortable thought comes into your mind, you can say “Why, hello, thought. What silly things are you trying to tell me today?”
   3. Evaluate if the thought is helpful or not, by asking yourself, Is this a helpful thought?  Will this thought help me in taking action towards my goals and accomplish what I want out of life? Is this thought productive for me to have?  Will this thought bring me more joy or more suffering? Am I dwelling in the past or worrying about the future? Most times, these thoughts are NOT helpful.
   4. Thank your brain for the thought and just let it go and bring your mind back to the present moment. You can say to yourself, “Thank you brain for the thought but that is not really useful or helpful right now.” Then bring your attention back to your breath and focus on what is important to you.

Difficult thoughts most likely WILL come back into your brain but just go through the steps again each time it does and it will slowly lose its grip over you that causes so much distress.