Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes teaches thought-stopping techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy to manage intrusive thoughts and improve focus. The video covers practical methods to interrupt unwanted thoughts before they spiral.
Welcome to this video on thought stopping. This is another video in the cognitive behavioral therapy Nugget series. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Sometimes our brain goes in multiple directions that we don't want. And some people call this monkey mind. What we're going to talk about is one aspect of taming that monkey mind. Stopping some of those intrusive and unwanted thoughts. Thought stopping helps you redirect your brain. Maybe you're sitting there doing something at work and your mind wanders to something you're worried about. All right, well, in order to tame that monkey mind, you don't want to continue thinking about that thing. You want to tell yourself, no, I'm going to focus on what's going on in the present moment. So how do you do do that? Well, ex. First thing you do is exactly that. Tell yourself, no, I'm not going to think about that right now. Replace the thought with something else. You can replace it with a mantra. You know, maybe you're worried about getting some test results back, or you're worried about a loved one and your mind keeps going there. Well, tell yourself, no, I'm not going to think about that right now. And then say some sort of mantra or prayer. Like, you know, the serenity Prayer is my go to Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference, or, you know, a few Hail Marys, whatever works for you in order to occupy your mind so that that thought can come back and it can knock on the door, but you're not letting it in. A mantra, a prayer. Some people will pick up a book and say, no, I'm not going to think about that right now. I'm going to start reading this book so I can focus on that. Or sometimes you just return your attention to whatever you're doing in the moment. If you were working and you were just, you know, typing away in an Excel spreadsheet, and all of a sudden your mind went over there, bring it back and say, no, I'm not going to think about that right now. I'm going to focus on what I'm doing. I find that sometimes it's helpful to talk out loud, talk myself through it in order to stay more grounded. If my mind starts wandering, like when I'm cooking, I will just start kind of narrating exactly what I'm doing when I'm doing it. Now, that doesn't work perfectly. If you're in an office with a bunch of people but if you're at home, if you're laying in bed, if you're at the gym, well, maybe not at the gym. There are a lot of times you can narrate, you know, out loud, and that really helps keep you focused and grounded in the moment. If that thought keeps coming back, ask yourself, what's the benefit to ruminating on this thought? What is the benefit for me to keep worrying about this? Is worrying going to change it? Is worrying going to help anything? And the answer is 99 times out of 100, no. Worry doesn't do anything. Worry and anxiety are feelings you have that are supposed to motivate you to do something, not just sit there and nurture the feeling. Which takes us to our next step. Once you decide that, there's probably no benefit to ruminating on it, to worrying about it or stewing on it, and ask yourself, is there anything I can do to address this thought and improve this issue at this moment? If you're waiting on test results or worried about a loved one, for example, the answer is probably no. It's just a matter of you have to wait, you have to be patient. And that can be really agonizing at times. I get that. However, also recognizing that worrying is going to, you know, impair your sleep, it's going to impair your immunity, it's going to, you know, have negative effects. It's important to give yourself permission to not have to continue to revisit that. Some people find it helpful to write down their worries. If they get it out, if they get it out on paper, then they're not concerned that they're going to forget about it for some reason. So write it down and put it into your thought box. Some people will call it a God box, some people will call it a universe box. Whatever it is, you take this worry, this intrusive thought that you're having, you write it down and you give it. You put it away, you put it on a shelf, and that's actually physically giving you the experience of shelving that thought for a moment. You can come back to it whenever you want. It's not going anywhere, but you're shelving it for the moment. Don't get discouraged. It takes time to develop this skill, especially if you are a person who does ruminate a lot, who does worry a lot. Start small. If you have an intrusive thought, you know, try some of these techniques and try to get to the point where you can stop having the thought for five minutes. And then once you can do that, pretty easily, then 10 minutes, it sounds like. Not, not a big deal, but it can be, especially if it's something that you are really concerned about. It can be hard to even go five minutes. So set yourself up for success taking small steps towards learning how to tame that monkey mind. I can give you the other example, and it's not, you know, a monkey, but if you've ever tried to train a dog to do the basic commands at first, if you can get your puppy to sit and just, you know, sit and hold it for about a second and a half, oh, that's wonderful. And then you want to get it to where the puppy will sit for three seconds and then five seconds. And then eventually you want the puppy to be able and willing to sit until it comes when it's cold. That's exactly what we want to do when we tame our monkey mind. We want to get to the point where we can put prevent it from getting up and jumping into our brain right away. I hope this skill ends up being helpful for you. It certainly helps a lot of people reduce their distress and improve their productivity once they get the hang of it. But be patient with yourself.
