Cyclical Thoughts and Feelings: Throw Them Out

 

Thank you to David Hatfield for introducing me to this exercise. 

We often get stuck in cyclical thoughts and feelings, which take us away from living our lives.

This is a simple exercise to help manage cyclical thoughts and/or feelings: 

Exercise:

1. Consciously become aware of a cyclical thought/feeling you are having or have been having recently.
2. Name it. Get a good sense of the puzzle you are trying to solve in your head and how it makes you feel overall.
3. Figure out what part of your body this thought/feeling affects the most. It may be your head or it may be something like a tension, constriction, or heaviness somewhere else in your body.
4. When you know where it’s located, give it a shape, a texture, and a color. Don’t think too hard about this, just the first thing that comes to mind.