ChrisNos
07-23-2009, 06:40 PM
Hey everyone,
I'm new here, but I wanted to give share with you guys a simple exercise I developed and would love get your thoughts :).
It is based on the idea of focusing attention away from your emotions in an anxious situation by looking at the bigger picture and getting your brain to accept, on a core level, that the feeling of anxiety (or any other negative stress, fear, worry, ect.) is essentially worthless.
First, Imagine a timeline of your ENTIRE life... now, imagine, on that timeline, that where you are on the timeline is represented by a TINY almost invisible dot that represents 1 out of the 720,000 hours you're going to be alive on this planet... and take not of how insignifigant that dot (this ONE moment in time) seems when compared to the grand scale of your whole life.
With that in mind, the exercise basically goes like this:
You consider that the dot represents TODAY (1 out of 30,000 or so days in your life).
So for example, if you're feeling anxious or nervous in a situation, stop and recognize that this feeling is INSIGNIFIGANT in comparison to your entire life, when you consider you're experience 1 of some 720,000 hours you're going to live on this planet, and you can stop placing so much significance on that ONE moment when you look at the "big picture" this way, and you can REALLY see the situation as an insignifigant thing that doesn't really matter.
Because if you think about it closely, what is an emotion anyway, it's just a chemical produced by your hypothalamus in your brain that goes through your blood stream and causes you to physically experience a feeling which begins to effect your thoughts and actions.
Use this exercise the next time you start to feel fear, anxiety, worry, or any other negative emotion, and remind yourself that in the grand size of your entire life, this one moment is somewhat insignifigant and not worthy of experiencing these fears, worries or stresses over.
I sincerely hope this helps many of you out! :)
I'm new here, but I wanted to give share with you guys a simple exercise I developed and would love get your thoughts :).
It is based on the idea of focusing attention away from your emotions in an anxious situation by looking at the bigger picture and getting your brain to accept, on a core level, that the feeling of anxiety (or any other negative stress, fear, worry, ect.) is essentially worthless.
First, Imagine a timeline of your ENTIRE life... now, imagine, on that timeline, that where you are on the timeline is represented by a TINY almost invisible dot that represents 1 out of the 720,000 hours you're going to be alive on this planet... and take not of how insignifigant that dot (this ONE moment in time) seems when compared to the grand scale of your whole life.
With that in mind, the exercise basically goes like this:
You consider that the dot represents TODAY (1 out of 30,000 or so days in your life).
So for example, if you're feeling anxious or nervous in a situation, stop and recognize that this feeling is INSIGNIFIGANT in comparison to your entire life, when you consider you're experience 1 of some 720,000 hours you're going to live on this planet, and you can stop placing so much significance on that ONE moment when you look at the "big picture" this way, and you can REALLY see the situation as an insignifigant thing that doesn't really matter.
Because if you think about it closely, what is an emotion anyway, it's just a chemical produced by your hypothalamus in your brain that goes through your blood stream and causes you to physically experience a feeling which begins to effect your thoughts and actions.
Use this exercise the next time you start to feel fear, anxiety, worry, or any other negative emotion, and remind yourself that in the grand size of your entire life, this one moment is somewhat insignifigant and not worthy of experiencing these fears, worries or stresses over.
I sincerely hope this helps many of you out! :)