Doing something by doing nothing—how to stop neurotic thinking

Self-Coaching

How exactly do you stop allowing yourself to be manipulated by neurotic thinking? The simple answer to this question is best summed up by something my grandmother was fond of saying: You can’t stop a bird from flying into your hair, but you don’t have to help it build a nest. You may not be able to stop neurotic thoughts from percolating up into consciousness, but you don’t have to passively allow your conscious mind to become part of the “nest-building” problem. This is the essence of Mind-Talk’s Step Two, stopping the progression of insecurity-driven thinking. In this Self-Coaching podcast, I introduce two techniques for stopping this progression (a.k.a., nest building): • Engaging—focusing your conscious mind to actively stop the progression of insecurity-driven thinking. • Active Ignoring—asserting your conscious mind to ignore and disengage from insecurity-driven thinking.