Nelson Mandela Said It Best When...

[desijj14]

He said, "The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time." Speaking personally I find myself bombarded with thoughts all day long. I have thoughts about my thoughts. It becomes far too overwhelming at times. I would easliy say at least 85% of these thoughts are negative or personally self harming. "I really need to get back into the gym, my ass is dropping. Shit, I realllly have to stop doing this that and the other. I should be saving more money. Why didn't he respond to me? Should I just say fuck it and quit my job." So on and so forth. The thoughts are there to put me to sleep at night and wake me up in the morning. Assholes.

In the last 6 months I have changed my perspective on the way I view certain things pertaining to myself. A quick story... I work in behavioral health. Some staff members and myself were listening to one of our patients yelling in her room. She was having an intense argument with herself and for some reason we never figured out..she was super pissed at herself. She would say things like how could you let me do this again? You are worthless and ugly and no wonder he did that to you. The doctor of course wanted to increase her medications because she was "manic" and "experiencing psychosis". I looked at it in this way. This woman is no different than any other person alive right now. The only difference is she is saying what she is thinking outloud and the rest of us keep it to ourselves for fear that other people will think we're "crazy".

So how do we overcome these thoughts and take back our own personal power? We have to start with not taking the suggestions of our thoughts on how to "fix things". We just cannot. Why rely on the same voice or thought that gave you advice after he/she just got you into the mess to begin with? I have found that spending time just watching my thoughts, in a non-judgemental way, has been super beneficial to my personal growth. In essence I became a witness to my thoughts. Over time I have come to realize my thoughts are a super crazy asshole roommate that I want out...unless I am in some type of danger then I want my thoughts to tell me to run. Survival is the main reason we have a brain. Thousands of years ago we had real dangerous shit coming after us. Lions, sharks and house cats. LOL What do we have now? Our thoughts. And our brains are constantly trying to create a problem for us to fix so it can be helpful. It's like a nagging child that won't go away until you give them some kind of satisfying distraction to delve into.

So that is what I am encouraging my fellows to do here. Find a way to distract your mind and your thoughts will follow. Start by witnessing your thoughts. Really assess them without judging. Have the thought then move on to the next thought and so on. Eventually you will start to recognize a pattern and truly be able to laugh at them. Step back for a second and instead of looking at all your troubles and trying to fix them at once..which can be overwhelming, work on just this one thing at a time. I realized that when I freak out about all the little things I need to fix and get done I just don't. I'm on a rat wheel of I have to do this, I'm a piece of shit for not doing this, crazy adventure. Once you are able to just be a witness everything else begins to fall into place. You have more control over the thoughts you chose to believe and not believe and the once that are self-damaging just start to go away because they know they can't "get to you any longer". Every morning you go to sleep tell yourself 3 things you are grateful for, three things that brought you love or joy..and when you recall them, really feel what it felt like to experience it in the moment. It can be as simple as somebody smiling at you or how nice the wind felt on your face, etc. As soon as you open your eyes in the morning remind your thoughts that they are on hold..and tell yourself and truly believe that that day is going to be a wonderful day. And so it will be :)

[Bezbozhnikustanka]

I'm old, my life's nearly over. The antidepressants aren't working, I feel like shit, the government have cut funding to mental health, so now I can't get an appointment to have my meds changed.5 more years and the Tory's will have privatised the NHS and it'll be impossible for people like me to get treatment. I hope some Looney tune who's off his meds because he can't afford prescription charges gets a machete and hacks a Tory MP to death, that'll make them thinkmtwice about privatisation. I can't think positive thoughts because I'm old, if you're not successful when you get to my age it means you're going to die a failure.

[John_Doesnt]

My friend wrote something similar to this take in college. He was suspended for "inciting violence".

[desijj14]

lol violence? How?