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Unhooking from Thoughts
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Hi! Welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, we're going to explore how our thoughts can create stress and anxiety, and how to unhook from those thoughts, and return to a calm center. So, how do our thoughts create anxiety? Well, one thing is when the mind casts itself into the future and it plays "what if" scenarios, or it imagines what could go wrong? When it catastrophizes, you know, that is, it predicts bad outcomes that haven't and likely will never eventuate. When we think those thoughts, our bodies respond to them as if the threats were real. The result? We feel stressed, worried, and anxious.
But if we can begin to recognize these thoughts when they arise, identifying them as, just that — thoughts. Uh, not something we have to take seriously or buy into. They start to lose their power to pull us into emotional reactivity. So in this way, we unhook ourselves from our anxious thoughts and we can be more calm entities within ourselves. An analogy: Picture yourself, sitting on the banks of a river and watching leaves floating down the stream.
So from the banks, you can calmly observe the many shapes, sizes and colors of the leaves, just watching them float by, without getting caught in the current. That's how we want to train in observing our thoughts. We want to learn to observe them like leaves on a stream from place of acceptance and objectivity, rather than letting them kind of draw us in and sweep us away in the current. So, in today's meditation, we'll work on developing this ability to relate to our anxious thoughts in a new way. We'll train in observing, non-reactively, seeing them as simply mental events.
And whenever we do get caught up in our thoughts, we'll train in finding a way to unhook from them and return to the stability and steadiness of mindful awareness.
Melli O'Brien
4.6Unhooking from Thoughts
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Duration
Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.
Hi! Welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, we're going to explore how our thoughts can create stress and anxiety, and how to unhook from those thoughts, and return to a calm center. So, how do our thoughts create anxiety? Well, one thing is when the mind casts itself into the future and it plays "what if" scenarios, or it imagines what could go wrong? When it catastrophizes, you know, that is, it predicts bad outcomes that haven't and likely will never eventuate. When we think those thoughts, our bodies respond to them as if the threats were real. The result? We feel stressed, worried, and anxious.
But if we can begin to recognize these thoughts when they arise, identifying them as, just that — thoughts. Uh, not something we have to take seriously or buy into. They start to lose their power to pull us into emotional reactivity. So in this way, we unhook ourselves from our anxious thoughts and we can be more calm entities within ourselves. An analogy: Picture yourself, sitting on the banks of a river and watching leaves floating down the stream.
So from the banks, you can calmly observe the many shapes, sizes and colors of the leaves, just watching them float by, without getting caught in the current. That's how we want to train in observing our thoughts. We want to learn to observe them like leaves on a stream from place of acceptance and objectivity, rather than letting them kind of draw us in and sweep us away in the current. So, in today's meditation, we'll work on developing this ability to relate to our anxious thoughts in a new way. We'll train in observing, non-reactively, seeing them as simply mental events.
And whenever we do get caught up in our thoughts, we'll train in finding a way to unhook from them and return to the stability and steadiness of mindful awareness.
Melli O'Brien
4.6Duration
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Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
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The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
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- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
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