Sounds a lot like CBT.
I've struggled a lot with anxiety on and off for years. Finally started medication last winter but it's not a fix all drug. A lot of it is how you think which is really hard to control. It can take months or even years of practice.
Basically with me, if I had a bad experience in a certain setting-once I'm in that setting again my mind tells me that I'm going to have that same bad experience. I have to try and convince myself that even though I'm in that same setting, it doesn't necessarily mean the experience is going to be the same. It's still really hard to do sometimes though.
English
-
[quote]A lot of it is how you think which is really hard to control[/quote] You can't control how you think. So dont' even try. What you CAN control is whether you BELIEVE (uncritically) what you think...and how you respond to it.
-
You can't control every thought that enters your mind, but you can control how you react to them.
-
Which is what I said. You're right. The point of CBT...and many meditation practices...is to BREAK the identification with the inner dialogue (I am my thoughts). By having you recognize the thought...and challenge the truth/validity of what it is trying to tell you. Its important because many thoughts are "automatic" and will operate outside of conscious awareness. Also thoughts with very strong emotional content are usually reactions to the past, rather than responses to the present.
-
Basically what I meant was keeping your thoughts [b]under[/b] control and realizing they're not facts, especially when it comes to emotions. And when you say they usually react to the past, you're right. That's why I mentioned in my first post that because I had a bad experience in a certain setting, my first thought is that I will have the same bad experience; however, the trick is to realizing that the thought isn't a fact and that just because I had a bad experience in that setting once, doesn't mean I will have it again in the same setting.