Perfect! You don’t have to do both of those and still be free from intrusive thoughts. The first step is to notice and change the way you look at intrusive thoughts. The second step is to understand the nature of a thought, because a thought is a thought and whether it is intrusive or helpful is secondary. I am sure you don’t want to entirely get rid of all thoughts. The third step is to learn and cultivate a habit of an alternative activity that would replace the intrusive thoughts.
Step One: Replace “My intrusive thoughts” with “intrusive thoughts”. Just drop the my. Now reframe your question and see how it looks. Replace “get rid of” with release or let go of. Because it is not one single thought or a set of specific thoughts that comes and stays and if you manage to get rid of it, it will never come back. It is a continuous occurrence and there could be millions of thoughts. You don’t want to get rid of anything, you simply want to enjoy a state of quiet mind during which such thoughts do not arise.
Step Two: Look at your smartphone. Text messages keep on coming into this device all the time. These text messages to a smartphone are similar to thoughts to a human brain. Where is the text message a moment before it lands on the phone? How did it reach your phone? What was the shape and form of the text message before it landed on the phone? I have explained about this in full detail in my book to give you a clear understanding of the nature of your thoughts.
Step Three: Two simple activities namely FGCB and Deep Crossing can be used to replace thoughts and allow you momentary freedom to enjoy quiet mind time. Each of these activities take just one to three minutes. You will find a video of Deep Crossing on my YouTube channel (YouTube.com/@selvansawarenessjourney) or on the homepage of my website.
FGCB is explained in the article below.
Humanity “THE BEST RELIGION” · December 18, 2022
Your first tool for an effective meditation practice – Focused Breathing and Conscious Breathing – FGCB
Do this for just three minutes and see if it helps. Sit on a straight back chair with feet flat on the floor, the entire soles of the feet from tips of the toes to the heels firmly contacting the floor. Keep your back erect, you may place a cushion behind your back for support if required but do not lean back on an inclined backrest of the chair. Let your head be held straight, neck straight, shoulders square and relaxed. You may tilt the head very slightly downward to gaze at a point on the floor in front of you a few feet away from you. Keep your eyes fixed on that spot for the three minutes without moving your eyeballs. Allow your eyes to be half open and half closed and hold that spot in a gentle gaze and not a stare. You are not looking there to see something but simply holding that spot in a gentle gaze. Exhale with a loud sigh from your mouth and use gentle effort to empty your lungs as far as possible without straining too much. Then relax your body and allow the inhale to happen effortlessly and soundlessly through your nostrils. When you sense that the inhale is over, do not put any further effort to breathe in but repeat the exhale from the mouth with the sound and gentle effort. I call this conscious breathing. Effort only for the out breaths and allowing in breaths to happen effortlessly. This entire process is called FGCB or fixed gazing with conscious breathing. You may set hourly reminder alerts on your smartphone and repeat this 3 minute FGCB every hour throughout the day today and see how it helps with calming your mind. This is a powerful grounding practice and you can do this even when you are driving and waiting for the red signal to turn green. Allow any such interruptions in your day to remind you to come back to the practice of FGCB repeatedly. For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.
My book “Awareness Journey | The Happy Place module – A journey into the deepest aspects of you” is a mentoring journey that will help you to be completely free from intrusive thoughts. The reader will be hand held through a one month journey to make being in the Happy Place within as your default mode of being. When you are here, you will be able to effortlessly be free from intrusive thoughts.
Buy the book and embark on your own journey into Awareness using the following link.https://amzn.eu/d/iwP7iTq