Today I did my second session with a client who suffers from Anxiety and Panic Disorder and our theme was ‘Thoughts are not facts’.
How can what we think be untrue?
Surely we are honest with ourselves?
Well, firstly we have to notice our thoughts in order to explore this idea and our feelings and body help us to do this.
Do you feel overwhelmed? Maybe your thought is, “I can’t do this”.
Perhaps you have a stomach ache and you’re thinking, “Things are getting worse”.
For me, one recurring thought is, “I’m useless”, and I have it every time I make a mistake, spill my tea or fail to understand something (hi-tech on YouTube).
Are all these thoughts facts? Are things really getting worse? Am I useless? No. We just see life through a veil of our own past experiences and not how it actually is.
Then we create sentences to describe our interpretations and perceptions – our thoughts. They are rarely helpful but we believe them because we think they are facts.
For my client today, her thoughts tell her that she is in danger when doing completely safe activities. We talked about the possibility of considering that when she thinks she is in danger, that thought is not a fact and she could say to herself, “There is that thought that tells me I’m not safe. It’s not a fact. I AM safe. ”
If you can recognise that you have thoughts that are unhelpful and make you feel bad about yourself, or scared to do something, be aware that your thought is just a thought, a mental event. Not a fact.
Every time I write a post for this page I think, “No-one will be interested in this”, but I know that’s just an unhelpful thought so I let it go and publish my post anyway.
My client’s homework is to notice when she thinks, “I can’t do it”, and to say to herself, “I can do this. Whatever happens, I’ll handle it!”
Mindfulness helps us to see our thoughts clearly, exactly as they are, and then decide whether they are helpful or unhelpful. Our whole life is created by our thoughts so it’s worth choosing ones that make us happy.
Wait for your next thought… then decide – fact or fiction.
