Bookmark

Becca said: ↑

I've been living my life thinking about fear and worry thoughts as being a part of me, a byproduct of my inner bully, that are serving to protect me (though in a totally misguided way). But I wonder if thinking about my fear and worry as an addiction, as Daniel talks about, might help me to break my old habits of indulging these destructive thoughts and labeling them as "protective" and allow me to start pushing back and create new habits allowing me to have less anxiety, less fear, and ultimately, more happiness.

I'd be really interested to hear others' thoughts on this...
Click to expand...

Becca,
I believe the answer lies in Daniel's excellent post:

Daniel G Lyman MSW said: ↑

I’d encourage you to try and recognize every time that you allow yourself to worry (have fear) about something in your life. Notice how many times per day you indulge in those worries. People often discover that they spend much of their day in a fearful place. Fear (as I’ve written about before) can do horrible things to do the body.

For example, think of people sitting in a movie theatre watching a horror movie. Generally their visceral reaction of fear is one of tightness and tension (gripping the seat, pulling their hair, squeezing the hand of the person next to them). If we allow ourselves to be in a fearful state every single day, we’re encouraging our body to react in a similar fashion. If you live in a place of constant tension, your body will begin to suffer. Recognizing the damaging effects of fear can help begin the process of re-training our brain not to indulge in these fearful thoughts. See if you can (1) notice when you’re having these thoughts and (2) stop yourself. You might find that when you have these thoughts you will have the same physical reaction (though perhaps slightly more subdued) that those same horror movie patrons experience. At that point you can see how damaging it is to your body to continue those thoughts. Take a deep breath, and see if you can release some of the tension you might be feeling.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, his recommendation for addressing fear thoughts is to "recognize", "notice", "stop", "take a deep breath". And the reason for stopping the thoughts is that they create unpleasant sensations in the body (tension) which can create or amplify pain.

So rather than thinking about how to think about fear/worry thoughts (very meta ), I would suggest noticing how your body feels when you engage in fear and worry. That will tell you if they are beneficial to your mindbody. This is a very new approach for me, as I've been very analytical all my life, and considered it a strength. But I am beginning to realize that I can't think my way out of my thinking problems.

My belief is that fear and worry thoughts are a defense mechanism as you state above, but not one that serves the mindbody well 99.99% of the time, and therefore, I am best served by stopping them.

Log in or Sign up

The Mindbody Syndrome (TMS)
Discussion Forum

Log in or Sign up

Bookmark

Useful Searches