Stop Thinking: How to Recognize and Derail Negative Thought Patterns

What is thinking?  Thinking is when our intelligence (our awareness, our spiritual self, our sense of being, the “you” that explores your mind) moves between our conscious mind (the here and now) and our subconscious mind (our imagination, memory, and emotions).  

A thought can come from many different sources:  Our peers –people we listen to and interact with– our environment –the sounds, smells, sights, and vibes around us– our own conscious mind –us digging though our own thoughts to create new thoughts– our own central nervous system –Ouch! That hurt; oh! That felt good; etc. – and spiritual sources – inspiration, the Holy Spirit or the devil and his minions.  

Regardless of the source of a thought, every thought presents itself, first, in our conscious mind.  The conscious mind sees the thought as information.  Nothing more or less than that.  The conscious mind is unfeeling, and very logical.  If the information is seen as true or relatable or consistent with something we already believe, then our intelligence will carry that thought through our mental filters (meant to prevent thoughts that contradict what we believe from polluting our mind) and into the subconscious mind.  

Once a thought enters into our subconscious mind, the first thing it encounters is the imagination.  Our imagination’s job is to explore, predict, expand, entertain, and create hypothetical realities.  It is an amazing tool that is the basis for all the advancement the human race has ever seen.  Once a thought enters into the imagination, our mind looks at all the possible implications of the thought, creates realities in which this thought has come to fruition and imagines what can be done to move forward with this thought.  

Once our imagination has expanded a thought, our intelligence brings it into the memory.  A new memory is created and stored as a result of this thought.  Similar memories are also brought into our awareness and explored.  These similarities fortify and give a foundation in our mind for this new thought.  If there are enough similarities to past memories, this thought is strengthened even more than what was done in the imagination.  It becomes more real, more possible.  

The intelligence then carries the thought from the memory into the emotions.  To the degree that the thought was amplified, expanded, and fortified by the imagination and memory, an emotion is created around the thought.  If it was a passing thought that did not spend much time or energy in the memory or imagination, a weak emotion will be assigned to it.  If it was a thought that greatly occupied our time and energy in the imagination and memory, then it will have an intense emotion assigned to it.  

Once the emotion is assigned to the thought and we begin the process of feeling that emotion, two things happen: First, a new layer in our mental filter is created.  This will let similar thoughts to the one we took on this journey come through.  This creates a thought pattern or behavior.  Second, the brain creates an electrical frequency out of the emotion and stores it somewhere in the body.  This influences where we feel the emotion and what areas of the body are affected by the emotion.  

When we think and feel, we are going through this process over and over again.  Introducing new thoughts, carrying them through the subconscious and establishing new patterns.  What happens when we start creating and experiencing patterns of stress or anxiety?  Anger, grief, depression, or addiction?  How do we stop the process?  Do we keep thinking and exploring the issue?  No.  The answer is to STOP THINKING!  At least to break the pattern and consciously override it to create a new, deliberate pattern.  

How do you stop thinking?  Remember, thinking is the movement of the intelligence to and from the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.  The answer then is to hold the intelligence where it is calm, quiet, and unfeeling.  In the conscious mind. In the present.

The conscious mind is where we are most aware of what is actually happening right here, right now.  Take a deep breath.  That is all that is happening right now.  Find an object or physical activity to focus on.  Something that requires ZERO thought but all your concentration.  I often tell people to look at their hand.  Look at the lines and details.  Analyze it on it’s deepest level.  Some people prefer to start counting things.  How many yellow things can you see?  How many sounds can you hear?  How many smells can you smell?  These activities pull your intelligence away from whatever it was doing in the subconscious mind and bring it back (out of the past and out of the future) into the present moment.  Often –without the noise of what goes on in the imagination, memory and emotions– whatever is happening in the moment is very quiet.  While you are in your conscious mind, you have a calm, clear, quiet, powerful, peaceful mind.  Once this state is achieved, you are then able to logically ask yourself whether or not the most recent thought process is important enough for you to continue actively thinking about.  Honestly.  Is it worth it?  Sometimes it is important to experience certain emotions.  Sometimes it is not.  We do not stuff down and ignore important emotions.  Is this one of those?

If not, you can then choose which mental path you want to walk going forward.  If you do this enough –recognizing when your mind is going out of control and derailing the thought process and resetting yourself in your conscious mind– then you will establish a new mental pattern.  One that rejects the negative patterns that create anxiety, depression, anger, etc. in favor of one that creates peace, relying on logic and personal choice.  Eventually this becomes second nature, but it takes work and conscious effort at first.  

Steps for Derailing Negative Thought Patterns

1. Recognize when your mind is out of control.

2. Take a deep breath.

3. Look at your hand or do some other simple, but deliberate action

   1. Count something, analyze some art, take three sharp breaths and hiss the breath out as slowly as possible, etc.  

4. Once you feel the intelligence reach that quiet, focused place in your conscious mind, ask yourself if the recent thought pattern is worth continuing. 

5. Choose what or how you will think, going forward, then do it deliberately and carefully, sticking to calm, clear, positive conclusions.