Racing Thoughts? Here are 6 tips to slow racing thoughts

Hey, it's so nice to see you. This is Dr. Nicole. And today you are going to learn six tips for stopping racing thoughts. I'm excited to share these with you. It's a question that I've been asked a lot of times by my warriors, my patients, my clients. And racing thoughts can happen in anxiety. They can happen when we're feeling overwhelmed. Racing thoughts can happen when we feel a lot of pressure or uncertainty. And so if you're dealing with racing thoughts, this is the perfect live for you. And I'm going to be sharing my favorite strategies on how to send those backstage so that you can feel crisp, you can feel in control, you can feel in charge, and then have the clarity to do what you need to do and to be fully present and to feel like yourself. And so when we're thinking about racing thoughts, we're thinking about how thoughts can be really intrusive, where you're trying to focus on something and then all these thoughts are jumping in your mind. Racing thoughts can also manifest. And I'm trying to think, but my thoughts are going round and round. They're really quick, they're really loopy, they're really intrusive, they're really bothersome. There is a lot that we can do to help with racing thoughts. The more that you practice these things I'm going to tell you about, the more it's going to work. In fact, sometimes in the beginning when we're practicing these strategies, the thoughts may get a little bit louder. And I call that an extinction burst, where the thoughts are going to say, like, oh, my gosh, you're trying to get rid of me. I'm going to get louder and louder because I want to be center stage. I'm here to. I have a mission to complete. I'm here to protect you. I'm here to serve you in my own way. And so then when we start to utilize these strategies in the beginning, the thoughts may get a little bit more annoying, more intrusive. And so if you stick with it, I promise you these tips will work. Just make sure that you are committed to yourself, doing the work and sticking with it. Okay? I just want to thank the amazing people that are on today. On this live. I see the amazing, brilliant, beautiful Jared. I see Ron. Hello, honey. It's so nice. This is our first live together. I'm really happy you're here. We're going to be talking about racing thoughts today. And so if you're dealing with racing thoughts or somebody you love or know would benefit from some tips on how to help their racing thoughts, then definitely share the word. And so we're going to go through six strategies today and I'm going to keep it nice and short and sweet. I'll also put out a blog so you'll get everything in writing. And. And so let's jump in. So the first thing, if you're dealing with racing thoughts, we have to interrupt the record groove. And my favorite way to interrupt that record groove of just thought, thought that cycling, that spinning into thoughts is to use what I call the 4S model for being in the body. So we have to think like energetically. We have all these thoughts like very cerebral experience. I see this very commonly intelligent people, analytical type people, people who have a lot of responsibilities, master multitaskers. I often see racing thoughts like a very cerebral cognitive presentation and high achievers. And the difference between you being able to use this quick analytical thinking to be productive and helpful and get you where you want to be in life versus it, making you feel stuck, stuck in this anxious or obsessive kind of record groove is how you are able to utilize it and control it. And so the first thing is to interrupt the record groove by being in the body. In the 4S model, the 4S's are sent, seen, sip and stimuli. And so send is to bring you back in the body. Because sometimes obsessive thoughts can be dissociative, meaning it just kind of pulls us out of the moment we're thinking, we're analyzing, it's racing. So activating the forest model for being the body by getting into the body will help you be more grounded and have more control over your thoughts. So if your thoughts are racing, if your thoughts are spinning, we want to target scent. And so sometimes essential oils can be really helpful for that. So I find that if I've had a bunch of clients in a row and my brain is spinning with ideas for them, sometimes just taking a breath and inhaling a little bit of an essential oil can be helpful. Some people like to apply the essential oils topically. So you can apply essential oils to your wrist, to your temples, under your nose, highly vascularized areas, then the oil will absorb in. Make sure that if you are using an essential oil that it is therapeutic grade. I like better essentials. I have no affiliation with them, but I tend to see that they have pretty good therapeutic outcomes. They're pure, they don't have chemical derivatives in them. I mean, this one is just straight up Lavendula agustifolia lavender. My other favorite one is lemon. And again no affiliation with this company. Find a company that you believe in that works for you. And then in terms of the scent to bring you into your body, it depends on what your body chemistry enjoys. So some people do really well with lavender. Other people are more drawn towards, like, sandalwood. And it could even be like a candle that you like or a perfume, something that helps get get you in your body. Or creosote. When I'm stressed and I'm in the desert, I'll go out on a hike and I'll smell the creosote. If you rub the creosote plant leaves, it has this very refreshing aroma, and it's very grounding, and it can help pull that energy out of the brain. So we're talking about six tips to slow racing thoughts. The first tip is to interrupt the record group with the 4S model. The first of the 4S is send. And we talked about different things that might be helpful to bring you into your body by utilizing your ulcer olfactory nerve. And then there is seen oftentimes when we find ourselves just obsessing or circling thoughts, or the intrusive thoughts are getting to us, or the anxious thoughts are getting to us, we often need to create enough of an interruption to the nervous system where it derails it a little bit. And that's where scene comes into play, where you actually get up and relocate yourself. So if I'm sitting here at my desk, I find I focus better when I come into the office. And so if I'm sitting at my desk and I'm taking lots of notes, I'm writing, I'm working. But if my brain starts to get kind of stuck on something, I'll actually get up and I'll go, I have a couch over here. I may get up on the couch, or I might take a lap around the building outside, or I might just go to the restroom. And just changing the scene can be incredibly helpful. If you work in an office and you don't have many opportunities to change the scene, sometimes flipping over your mouse pad would be helpful. Or changing the scent. If you have an essential oil and you can just pull it out and give it a little sniff, anything that you could do just to change the stimuli. There's this really interesting research study that they conducted where they were looking at productivity in the workers. And this was in a factory. And so they had metrics, they were looking at productivity, the efficiency of the workers, and they were trying to strategize ways to increase efficiency. And so this is in terms of how can we keep them on task, how can we keep them motivated, how can we help them work more quickly, smarter, not harder? All these different variables, right? And so one thing that they actually did is they changed out the light bulbs in the building, and that was the only variable that changed. And they watched productivity. And the interesting outcome of the study was that they showed that productivity went up significantly when they made this change to the lighting. So the question is, well, how does the lighting impact productivity? So what they did after a period of time, they watched as that slow spiked, and then it went back kind of to a baseline again. So they changed the lighting again, but they went back to where it was originally. Productivity spiked again, and then after a while it went back to baseline. So what they observed is changing the stimuli or changing the scene in the work environment is an important part of helping people be more productive cognitively in times of. In terms of time utilization, all these different things. So. So if you're finding that you're getting stuck in a record groove, change the scene. We also talked about the scent, so changing the scent can be really helpful for that too. The third of the 4S model is SIP. And so you'll notice if you come and hang out in my office with me, I have my water, I have my tea, and then sometimes I get extra special, and I have my bubble beverage. And so I have bubble water, and I put juice and things like that in there. So I'm changing it up throughout the day. I'm having different sips, different delicious beverages to keep me in my body. And sometimes if you've been drinking the same thing all day long, changing it up would be helpful. Or if you haven't had any beverages, think about water as nourishing the brain, hydrating the body, hydrating the organs. And I love using tea, herbal teas, especially if we're thinking of sipping like an iced herbal ginkgo biloba tea or a hawthorn tea or bacopa or something else that's nourishing. If your racing thoughts are accompanied by anxiety, maybe a little bit of kava kava tea or chamomile tea, or Melissa sipping something where you're putting stimuli in terms of temperature and flavor, and then what you're actually putting in your body can be helpful. So that's the third of the forest model. And the fourth is to actually change the stimulation to your body. So we live in a culture where people are starved for touch, they're starved for affection, and oftentimes interrupting what we're Doing can be really helpful. So if you find that you're at home and you're anxious and your brain is stuck in a record group, sometimes simply hugging an animal, a stuffed animal, can be helpful just to get that contact or another person. If you have someone in your life that's into hugs or even changing your clothing, sometimes people feel better with weighted blankets. Anything that's going to change the stimulation that's going into your body, changing the temperature can be helpful. Sometimes people, if they're getting stuck and they, they just can't focus and they feel overwhelmed and their thoughts are spinning, sometimes going outside versus inside, if there's a big temperature difference can help. And so anything that you can do to change the stimuli that are going into your body. With racing thoughts, oftentimes I see that it's accompanied by feeling overstimulated, like, the noise is too loud, the lights are too bright, things are smelling too much, like, I just can't handle more stimuli. And so if that's the case for you, then figuring out a way to remove yourself from stimuli can be helpful. When I'm really focusing, I use my earbuds. I'll put those in so that I'm able to either focus on a melody that I have playing in the background or blocking out the noise around me. I also have a white noise machine in my office. And so figuring out what's going to be helpful for you in terms of adding or removing stimuli is going to be really helpful. So to catch you guys who just joined in is we've been talking about racing thoughts, and I'm sharing with you six tips to slow your racing thoughts down. The first one was to interrupt the record group by being in the body, and we just went over the 4S model. The second is to actually channel your energy. Oftentimes we have racing thoughts because our noradrenaline, which is like epinephrine and norepinephrine, those chemicals in the body, are elevated. And that can make our brain really sharp, really quick, really repetitive. Sometimes we have elevations in cortisol, which is an adrenal hormone that can push us into that fight or flight. And so sometimes our body has all of this energy that's pent up. And if we're not expelling that energy, then it'll go into our brain and into our thoughts. So I find that movement can be profoundly valuable in whatever way is useful for you, whether it's doing some yoga nidra poses where you, for example, lay on your back, gently rotate your spine by putting your knees together and rotating it, or going for a walk outside or even something that's more high intensity, like a sprint first. And I like sprint first because when we're thinking about the nervous system, we want to make sure that the intervention that we're using is louder than the nervous system itself. And so if your thoughts are 10 out of 10, they're really intrusive, they're really bothersome, then doing a nice yoga nidra exercise might not be enough. It might not be helpful, and the thoughts may distract you from being able to get into the poses. So in that case, you might actually do better with something more vigorous. So, for example, a strategy that you can use is to go outside and run as hard as you can for 15 to 30 seconds up and down the block around the house. Like I'll go around the building here at the office complex, then walk for a minute, catch your breath. And there's an interesting that's going to happen with that is one is that you're spiking up your nervous system. You're burning through that energy that we call it ATP, that energy that your body is putting out into the muscles, the organs, the brain. You're directing the cortisol, you're directing the epinephrine like it should be when the body is producing those things. It wants to allow you to run from the bear, metaphorically speaking. So you're pushing that and then you're allowing the nervous system to come back down. So you're teaching the nervous system how to spike and how to drop and spike and drop as opposed to what it's used to doing is just being in that kind of record, group fight, flight, kind of cognitive response. And so channeling your energy through exercise can be incredibly helpful. The third is a mantra. And so we use mantras in transcendental meditation. We use mantras in, in churches. A lot of doctrines are mantras that we recite. And so wherever you come from, finding a mantra that feels soothing, that you resonate with, that you can dial in on is incredibly helpful. I find that I personally don't do as well with just meditations where you have to clear your mind, because my mind is so over enthusiastic about thinking. And so mantras work really well for me. And so what you can do, find something to rest your gaze upon. And I can teach you all about using your gaze directionality to actually help clear a lot of those triggers for the racing thoughts. But we'll get that out in another live. But what you do is you rest your gaze on Something. And then as you inhale, you think the first part of the mantra. And then as you exhale, you think the second part of the mantra. So, for example, I would rest my eyes and I would say its, and then exhale, okay? And then you inhale its. And then you exhale, okay. And then as you're practicing that in the beginning, those thoughts are going to be coming in, they're going to be really intrusive. But the active participation of thinking something to interrupt that will be helpful as opposed to trying to silence your brain. If your brain is anything like mine. And again, remember we talked about in the beginning how those thoughts may have an extinction burst. They might try to get louder, but just allow them to come, release them and stick with your mantra. It's okay, it's okay. The more you practice it, the easier it will get. So the third we talked about is that mantra. And pick whatever resonates with you. I like to look at tree or a cactus or something that's still and just breathe. And if you can do that for two minutes, that would be amazingly helpful. It's practicing every day. It's going to add gray matter to the brain. The gray matter has the power to help connect the different parts of your brain that contribute to that fight, flight, freeze, racing, thought pattern. All right, so we have just a couple more. We're talking about the six tips to slow racing thoughts. We talked about the 4S model interrupting the record group. We talked about channeling your energy. We talked about transcendental meditation and using a mantra. And then the fourth is brain dumping. This is especially useful if the thoughts are repetitive. And so like I was having some thoughts and I just needed to get them out of my head because my brain is going to keep saying, remember this, remember this, don't forget. So just write it all down, everything, even if it doesn't make any sense, like, get your pen and just write it down. I like to have a dedicated journal for that so that I can come back and work on those triggers later when I choose, so that it's somewhere where I can put it mindfully away. It's a safe place where I know how to find it. I know it's safe, protected, private, and I can come back and work on it. And so it might be helpful for you to find like a leather bind journal or if you have a notepad in your phone where you can put these things. I think writing it is actually therapeutically quite a lot more beneficial. It activates different areas of the brain body. But write down brain dump. Write everything that your brain is thinking about. Number five is breathing with bubbles. What I'm actually doing is I'm going to be creating a panic kit where I'm going to teach you exactly what to carry with you so that if you're having a panic attack, that you have tools. I'm going to teach you what to do, how to use them. I actually just released a podcast, which is, if you're having a panic attack, play that podcast. It's guided imagery. It's me and you. It's 20 minutes. I'll walk you through every single step. What to do when you're having a panic attack. If you're having racing thoughts, that could be helpful too, because it's directing your thoughts in a very similar way, because the process in panic and racing thoughts is quite similar. Right. So breathing with bubbles is one of the strategies I'm going to teach you. And bubbles are fun because it actually gives you something to look at that you can get direct feedback on. You don't have to have bubbles. You can use your mindful imagination. But if you do, now's the time of year, go grab some bubbles. You can get them from the local store, you can buy them online. And so I like the ones that have the more round bubble blower brush as opposed to the narrow ones, because it's easier to have a slow exhalation, fill that bubble, and then the goal is you exhale. You want to breathe out a longer exhale, and then you want to blow that bubble up. And then ideally it would release. And then you could look at everything that was in there. The racing thoughts, the worries, the triggers, the thoughts all going into the bubble. Then that releases and then it floats away from you. So if you don't have access to bubbles, that's totally okay. You could close your eyes mindfully. Imagine pursing your lips as though you were blowing a bubble. Fill that bubble up with everything that's racing in your brain, racing your thoughts. And then imagine that bubble floating away. If you want to really optimize that, do four counts. And so you would do four count exhale, maybe even six counts if you want to elongate it a little bit. And then at the end of the exhale, hold for four counts, breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, and then exhale again for four counts and keep repeating that. And so then that sixth piece of our six steps to slow racing thoughts is this bubble releasing piece. So you blow the bubble number five, and the number six is you actually mindfully release the bubbles. And so we're invoking the breath, but we're also invoking intention and getting those thoughts, those feelings, out of your body and out of your mind. Today we've been talking about how to stop racing thoughts from hijacking your life. In what way are your racing thoughts impacting you? I know that for me, they can make me less productive, they can make me more distractible, they can fuel anxiety. And using these six steps has been game changing to help me feel like I, I have the power, I have the control when my brain is getting a little bit out of hand. There are botanicals, there are medicines, there are supplements that you can use. But my goal for you is that you don't need those things anymore, that you have the tools inside of your body, inside of yourself, to get your life back, to get your brain to be an ally with you instead of an antagonist so that you can have freedom. I wanted to also tell you we have a free Anxiety Freedom warriors group. I'm here in this group very frequently. I am offering support and free tips. I just want to offer this to you just to love on you and give you a safe place. If you are dealing with racing thoughts, obsessive thoughts, anxious thoughts, that's a great place to go. It's totally free. And then we also have the one week Anxiety Freedom Challenge in there. Again, it's totally free. You just simply give us a contact, we'll send you a booklet and it's seven days, videos and content. It's just a gift from me to you because babes, we need this in this time and it's stressful. There's a lot going on out there and so my heart is to rally for you, support you and love you. And so if you feel like this was helpful for you, then let me know in a private message or in the comments. And if it would be helpful for anybody else that you know or love, please, please share, please spread the word, all the goodness. I'm also over on Instagram and so come check us out. It's Dr. Nicole Cain on Instagram. Most of what I post is about Shiva, my Cavapoo puppy. And so if you don't want to see me, but you want to see puppies, go check it out. Anyway, loves, I'm going to pop over into the warriors group if you have any questions or want to expand on any other topics. Otherwise, I am on Facebook live Wednesdays and Fridays, 1 o' clock Eastern and I cannot wait to see you guys next week. All right. Talk to you soon. Bye.