Intrusive Thoughts

[Placebo]

Hey everyone! Hope all is well.

My question involves constant intrusive thoughts. They consist of images that gross me out to a high degree such as gore.

A huge feeling of contraction and tension follows. I realize that it is me who is reacting to the thoughts. But it feels like an automatic, knee jerk reaction. How do I just let these thoughts be? Did I create some kind of automatic neural connection which causes the intense contraction so quickly?

Thank you very much.

[Webwanderer]

I would suggest that the problem is not so much with the thoughts of gore, but with the self-judgment that seems to be linked to them. You mention a sense of contraction and tension that follows them. Therein lies the result of judgment.

I suggest you begin to look at those unwanted thoughts that arise with indifference. Don't feed them with a context of somehow being wrong. Rather, see them as just an unwanted habit of thought that you've now chosen to ignore. Let em go, and refocus on something you prefer - or just relax into the enjoyable feeling of being. Breathe a little. Experience what you are.

WW

[Placebo]

Thanks WW. I'm trying to ignore without force more and more. They're still there but progress is being made. If course they won't disappear overnight since I have so much attention to them.

[Webwanderer]

Glad to hear you can feel the progress Placebo. Another helpful tool in ridding yourself of these unwanted annoyances is to laugh them off. It is a little funny when you think of the dumb things we do to ourselves with our addictive thinking. See the humor in it and you've got it beat.

WW