Dr. Don Wood teaches a three-step technique to interrupt negative thoughts: prepare three positive memories in advance, visualize one with your eyes closed, then open your eyes and name the first object you see to ground yourself in the present.
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This is a hack to help you deal with negative thoughts. Everybody has negative thoughts. They just come in. It's a natural part of our mind. So what do you do when a negative thought comes in? Most people have trouble stopping them and so they get into a rut. So here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to prepare in advance three positive things that are going on in your life now. This could be a vacation. It could be spending time with your family, maybe holiday coming up. I want you to have in advance prepared what you would be doing on those three events. The reason I want you to have those is to think about if a comedian's on stage and a heckler yells out something, the comedians are prepared in advance with what they're going to say. If they aren't, they could get rattled and then lose their place, and then that would affect their entire set. So this is the same thing. Think of the negative thought as the heckler, and you're the comedian on stage. So have it prepared in advance so the negative thought comes in. I want you to close your eyes and then think about one of those positive things, a vacation or whatever it is, just for a few seconds. When you close your eyes, you basically slow down your brain waves. It's like going into neutral. And then when you bring in the thought that's positive, you're switching gears. And then when you switch gear again, you're thinking about the positive thought. And then open up your eyes, look at the first thing that you see and quickly describe it. That brings you back into the present moment. It's exactly what you want to do, is be back in the present, fully present and in the moment, and there it is.
