Do you believe this?

[nomoreanxiety]

1. Do you believe that anxiety is an emotional state?
2. Do you believe that emotional state was brought about by the way you are thinking(your thoughts)?
3. Do you believe you are not your thoughts, you just observe them, interact with some and disregard the rest?
4. Do you believe the thoughts you interact with cause the emotion and a disregarded thought will cause no emotion?
5. Do you believe you could disregard a strong thought that would normally evoke a lot of emotion?

I believe all of the above and I no longer suffer the emotional state.

Only applies to anxiety sufferers who believe number 2.

[alankay]

Well anxiety is more complex than that as the environment, biological makeup, experience and exact nature of a persons anxiety varies, etc, etc, such that generalizations are really not relevant. I never could ignore it, wish it away, think it away, believe it away or any other combination. Now I sure can believe an individual might have luck with any given approach but that would not be a protocol for treatment that all/most would benefit from. Alankay.

[nomoreanxiety]

My definition of my anxiety is, that it was an irrational emotional state brought about by years of detrimental thinking. But behind my thoughts I found a peaceful place by essentially ignoring my thoughts completely for a while then eventually only following the ones I knew were not detrimental to my wellbeing. My panic, irritability, lack of concentration and obsessive thoughts subsided.
If I could take away all your thoughts all that would be left would be pure peace, I know that is not possible but making 90% of your thoughts irrelevant , especially the detrimental ones brings about a certain peace. It worked for me and even if it works for one more person on here then my job is done.

[nomoreanxiety]

What do you mean % that only have thoughts, what else is there? if you could not think there would be no problem.

[jessed03]

1. Do you believe that anxiety is an emotional state?

I believe anxiety is three separate misaligned states, that contribute to an overall misaligned state of being; a mental, an emotional/spiritual and a physical state. For me, all 3 have contributed equally to the balance, leaving a very resistant anxiety, that meant I had to break everything in my life down in order to re-build everything with the necessary foundations.

2. Do you believe that emotional state was brought about by the way you are thinking(your thoughts)?

I believe it did contribute significantly, yes. I noticed this to be very true for the first part of my anxiety, but far less true for the latter part. A physical problem caused my first panic attack, but if I hadn't have screamed over and over in my head 'Oh my god! I'm gonna die' I'm not sure if it would have escalated the way it did. I still feel this now, my body tests me with surges of adrenaline, and my mind asks; Problem? To which I calmly respond no. If at any moment I respond yes, I firmly believe I will fall back into the panic cycle. . I remember it was the conclusions I drew that caused me much hurt. The belief I'd let people down, I'd lost my life, I'd be tortured forever. I did notice significant improvements when I had rectified my thinking, but it wasn't close to being the full picture. The physical aspect must never be neglected by medicine though, or it spells disaster. Harmony is the only way to beat anxiety, to ensure all cylinders are firing correctly. A binocular with one eye broken leads to a very distorted picture.

3. Do you believe you are not your thoughts, you just observe them, interact with some and disregard the rest?

Yes, I do believe this. I think the old adage should have been "I Am, therefore I think". The mind is still evolving. As humans we like to believe we're the finished article, the bee's knees if you will, but our mind is still evolving to comprehend it's own consciousness. This level of thought is (as far as our knowledge goes) something the world has never seen before.

4. Do you believe the thoughts you interact with cause the emotion and a disregarded thought will cause no emotion?

As an OCD sufferer, I've had some of the most horrific images the mind could visualize. Even though I am able to disregard the thoughts now, the images and thoughts do contain a degree of distaste. The thoughts I interact with cause a whole lot more punishment though. They revoke the feelings, and fears that lie beneath the surface. They also allow something more upsetting, and that is for the mind to create a picture. Good and bad exist only in the mind of humans. Nature is neutral, things just happen, they are as they are. It's my mind that creates the black and white binary opposites in the world. My mind if allowed, will create all the suffering I ever need, without getting out of bed. The stories, and conclusions it comes to, the almost life like false memories or future projections, they are what cause the pain once I decide to indugle in them. Emotions are the most addictive thing on earth. We have a world addicted to feelings of jealousy, insecurity, anger and victimization. We indulge in these thoughts, and create these stories to get our 'thrill'. Oscar Wilde once said "Most men, if they were made, could give up their pleasure's with relative ease. Very few could give up their pain". Sometimes though, just because you choose not to focus on the loud banging in your ears, it doesn't mean it's not deafening you.

5. Do you believe you could disregard a strong thought that would normally evoke a lot of emotion?

I've found in my own life, just because I haven't invited a thought in, it doesn't stop it lingering around my house. Some thoughts will stay with me for a very long time, and even though they aren't at the forefront of my consciounsess, it doesn't mean they aren't giving me an awkward feeling of being stalked. Sometimes I need to invite the thought in, let it say what it has to say, let my mind process it, or if it can't simply accept uncertainty, and allow the thought to move along.

Not sure if I was meant to answer these, or if they were rhetorical. Thought I'd give them a bash nonetheless :)

[nomoreanxiety]

I tried my best to think my way out of anxiety for years but it was totally futile, and as my anxiety was totally irrational and did not make any sense to my rational mind there seemed to be no way out. In the end the only option I had was one of totally letting go. When I talk about disregarding thought I don't just mean avoiding it and hoping it will go away. It seemed a lot deeper than that, it was a total letting go, like understanding that all my problems originated from my thoughts, so I threw thought to the wall for a while and used my awareness as much as I could. I stopped interacting with thought patterns unless it would stop my day to day functioning. I would monitor my breath, look at things without going down the road of trying to define them, just use my senses without the after thoughts.
What happened was amazing It all just disappeared, I still get anxious... but so does everybody, I still have weird thoughts pop in and say hello... but so does everybody.


I still practise meditation.
My thoughts cannot touch me at all, unless I let them.