Control Intrusive Thoughts

All too often we can be disturbed by repetitive negative thoughts of the past or future, based in reality or completely fictitious. These thoughts change our energy in negative ways causing anxiety, stress, and all manners of unwanted physical and emotional disturbances. This meditation contains a "sensualisation" that gives you control over such thoughts and, with repetition, helps remove the link between the thoughts and the resultant anxiety, etc.

Transcript

This recording is to help you deal with intrusive thoughts.

So making yourself comfortable,

Either sitting down or lying down.

And now that you're comfortable,

Take a gentle deep breath in and out and close down your eyes.

Allow your eyes to comfortably close.

And with visual distractions removed,

We can start to go inwards.

Connecting to your breath.

Noticing the flow in and down and up and out.

Noticing the movement in your stomach or your chest or both.

Perhaps noticing the flow of air at the nostrils.

The contrast between the freshness of the in-breath and the relative warmth of the out-breath.

And paying particular attention to the out-breath and that softening,

That release,

That letting go that happens on the out-breath.

Taking a few moments now to follow the out-breath and allow yourself to drift a little deeper with each exhalation.

That's good.

Notice how simple and how easy it is to allow the out-breath to take you that little bit deeper within.

Noticing any points of presence.

A point of presence being something that when you notice it it takes you deeper within.

The breath is of course easiest to notice.

It's with us every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

But there's also perhaps a slowly appearing sensation of heaviness.

Perhaps you can notice the weight of your hands.

Perhaps you can notice the weight of your feet if they're placed on the floor.

Perhaps you're noticing the weight of your entire body in the chair or on the bed and allowing that heaviness to increase.

In its own time,

At its own pace,

Becoming heavier and heavier,

Sinking down deeper and deeper within.

Along with the breath and any heaviness that you're noticing,

You're also noticing the weight of your hands.

Sinking down deeper and deeper within.

Along with the breath and any heaviness that you're noticing,

You may start noticing stillness.

A sense of peace and tranquility.

A sense of serenity.

Just notice the stillness,

The peace.

Embrace it.

There's absolutely nothing you need to do,

Nowhere to go.

Nothing to think of,

Just drifting deeper within.

And in order to do that a little deeper,

In a moment you'll hear me count down slowly from ten to one.

As I count down from ten to one,

With each descending number,

Allow yourself to drift one-tenth deeper within.

Just ten percent deeper within,

With each descending number.

Each slow descending number helping to take you a little deeper into heaviness,

Into stillness,

Into peace.

And into that wonderful state where you can access your inner resources,

The parts of you that already know just what to do,

And just how to do it.

The parts of you that are open to positive,

Healthy,

Beneficial suggestions.

So ready.

The parts of you that are open to positive,

Healthy,

Beneficial suggestions.

So ready.

Ten Nine Deeper and deeper within.

Eight.

Seven.

Drifting deeper within.

Six.

Five.

Letting go.

Four.

Three.

Two.

And.

.

.

One.

All the way down,

Deeper and deeper within.

In this meditation,

I'm offering suggestions and visualizations and centralizations to deal with intrusive thoughts.

Those thoughts that come and go but cause an emotional reaction.

Those tiresome,

Troublesome,

Repeating thoughts.

This template,

This set of small techniques,

Can be used for any intrusive thoughts,

Any thoughts that bother you.

Remember,

As you're listening here in this moment,

Not to try too hard.

This is,

As I mentioned,

Just a template.

Just allow whatever's happening to happen.

And with some gentle practice,

You will find you gain wonderful control over any thoughts that are causing you discomfort or unease.

Imagine yourself in a comfortable room.

A large armchair sits in the middle of the room.

You go and sit down,

Making yourself comfortable.

There is the biggest screen that you've ever seen in front of you.

To your right,

There's a remote control.

You switch on the screen and you find yourself faced with an intrusive thought.

Something that,

When it passes through your awareness,

Makes you feel uncomfortable.

It's perhaps like a little three or four second movie.

Watch it play out,

Repeating on that screen.

Notice how it makes you feel.

Watch it repeat.

Notice how it makes you feel.

And now,

In this moment,

It's your time.

Your time to take back control.

As you glance down at the remote control,

There's a button marked black and white.

As you press the button,

That huge screen in front of you changes from vivid colors to black and white.

The same movie,

Replaying,

Replaying.

But now,

In black and white.

And you feel a little more in control.

Suddenly,

This is interesting.

It's nice to feel more in control.

As you glance at the remote control,

Underneath black and white,

Is a button marked defocus.

You press that button and all of a sudden that black and white movie becomes ever so slightly bloody.

Black and white and slightly out of focus.

You watch the movie,

That intrusive thought repeating and repeating in front of you.

And it doesn't feel so important,

So intrusive anymore.

And you feel a little more in control.

It's good to feel in control.

Looking down at that remote control once again,

The next button down is shrink.

As you press the button,

That huge screen shrinks down to the size of a small television.

And there on that really small screen is that repeating movie,

In black and white,

Slightly out of focus.

And that thought,

That intrusive thought that used to cause you discomfort and unease now seems a little less intrusive,

Less powerful.

And you feel so much more in control.

And it feels good.

A really small,

Slightly out of focus black and white movie.

The next button down is mute.

And you know what that button does,

As you press it now,

The soundtrack to that movie is muted.

It's now like a silent film.

Small,

Black and white,

Slightly out of focus,

Silent.

You watch that movie repeating and repeating and repeating.

And the effect that that movie's having on you is really small now.

And you feel powerful and positive and confident and in control.

Glancing down at the remote control once again,

The next button is two times.

And pressing that button speeds up the action in that little movie now.

It's going twice as fast.

It's almost funny.

Watch what's happening on that tiny screen,

In black and white,

Slightly out of focus,

Silent.

And moving now twice as fast as it was.

Repeating and repeating and repeating.

It seems almost comical,

Unreal,

No longer part of you,

No longer having the same negative effect.

And you feel powerful and confident and in control.

You look down now at the remote control and there's only one button left.

The button says,

Soundtrack.

And you know that when you press this button,

As you will,

In a few moments,

There's going to be a new soundtrack played on that slightly out of focus,

Very small,

Black and white,

Quickly moving,

Silent movie.

A soundtrack of your choosing.

A soundtrack from the past.

Of a program on television or a movie.

That made you laugh.

It's your choice.

But it could be Tom and Jenny,

Lordlyn Hardy,

Monty Python,

Benny Hill.

There are so many to choose from.

The soundtrack to a program or movie.

That when you hear it,

Makes you laugh.

Press the soundtrack button now.

And there,

In front of you is the finished masterpiece.

A small,

Slightly out of focus,

Black and white,

Quickly moving,

Repeating movie.

With a hilarious soundtrack playing.

And you feel powerful.

In control.

Happy.

Free.

Released.

Content.

You are now back in control.

This sensualization,

Using that remote control to make all those changes,

Is a direct set of instructions to your inner mind.

A direct set of instructions that tells your inner mind,

This memory,

No longer controls me.

I am now in control.

I choose to let it go.

I am back in control.

And you can revisit this wonderful room.

With that huge screen and that incredible,

Almost magical remote control at any point.

Whether it's in this recording or in your own meditations.

The more that you use that incredible remote control,

The quicker the process will be.

The more effective.

And so,

Letting go.

Letting go of the sensualization,

Now returning to the breath.

Returning to the breath.

Feeling a sense of achievement and accomplishment.

As if a weight has been lifted from you.

As if a burden has been released.

A sense of freedom and peace.

Stability and serenity.

And a lovely,

Deep and long-lasting sense of well-being.

Now if you wish to come out of this meditation,

I'll offer some suggestions in a moment or two.

And if you wish to drift down into sleep,

Just ignore those suggestions.

Keep following your breath.

And you can drift deeper and deeper asleep.

Should you wish to return to the day,

However,

Simply bring some awareness into your feet and give them a little movement.

Do the same with your hands and your fingers,

Perhaps.

Gently stretching your arms up into the shoulders.

And when you're ready,

And only when you're ready,

You can take a gentle awakening breath in and out.

Open your eyes.

And return to the day.

Reviews

Thank you! Thank you! What wonderful way to deal with negative thoughts that replay in my head.

I love all of Andrews’s tracks…his voice is soothing and his talks are always helpful!

Incredibly calming and peaceful. A gentle meditation with powerful impact, and really engaging!

I’ve been struggling with intrusive thoughts this week and this meditation was so very helpful. Thank you!

I will be repeating this meditation regularly. A wonderful meditation for exactly what I needed. There is something very effective for me in the way you present meditations. I actually was smiling by the end, feeling better. It’s good to feel in control. Thank you Andrew

Really great way to deal with those thoughts that I’ve never heard before. Thank you! 🙏

For those that can do an excellent job visualizing this meditation is superb!

Very good. I guess EMDR-based. I'm not fully sure if it's the best track for the more gereal anxiety that I'm currently experiencing, however.

Wow! Incredibly effective! I loved replacing the soundtrack, even though my choice of Eric Morecambe playing the piano completely showed my age :-)

Helped reduce my emotional pain with the new remote control visualization. Thank you Andrew

Truly needed this right now to escape a health anxiety intrusive thought that lead to panic. Thank you so much for this.

Wow. Thank you for this powerful practice. My intrusive thoughts feel smaller and I feel more at peace. I’ll come back to this as I continue to grow to be more confident and in control. 🙏🏼

So creative. A great tool to help minimize the impact of thoughts. I will definitely be practicing this image the next time my brain conjures up something unpleasant. Thank you for creating this meditation.

I feel relief from specific intrusive thoughts because of this meditation. Thank you!

This was really helpful in getting rid of intrusive thoughts and finding inner peace. Thank you!

One of the most powerful meditations I’ve ever done!

That was absolutely an amazing meditation. So powerful! A perfect technique to use for negative repetitive thoughts. Thank you 🙏🏻

Intrusive, obsessive, OCD thoughts are so difficult, and this is one of the few techniques I’ve found effective at minimizing their grip. Definitely one of my favorites of Andrew’s guided meditations. Thanks yet again, Andrew, for your wonderful work!

What a lovely voice and way of describing things! Thank you! Im in a quite difficult relapse with my OCD and this one is beneficial!!

I'm so happy and relieved after this session. Thanks for your wonderful wisdom.