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by ryeights 1226 days ago
How to beat stress and anxiety, step 1:

>become better at managing your stress […] train your mind to flip off the stress switch

Well yes, I suppose…

2 comments

It is actually something you can teach yourself to do.

It requires some practice, but the gist of it is to train awareness around your thoughts, and then to dispassionately label your thoughts when you find yourself stuck in a loop about something. Don't engage with them or try to fight them, just say "that's worrying" or or maybe if your source of stress is you're constantly try to solve all the world's problems, you say "I'm problem-solving".

It's important not to make it a struggle. Just label them over and over again. Two hundred times in an hour if that's what it takes.

If you do that over and over again, not only will it become easier each time to the point where it's almost like flipping a switch and your mind flushes all that crap like an airplane toilet and in the absence impressions of the world come rushing in, it becomes very clear how stuck in a bubble you were. Not only that, which is arguably a benefit in itself, you'll also find yourself stuck in those thought patterns less over time.

It really is an amazingly powerful technique.

The keywords are “conscious effort”