You ever sit up in bed from a restful sleep and then immediately start scanning your brain for anxiety and sources of worry? I have and I’ve done so plenty of times. I seriously doubt that this is intentional on our part, it’s more of a habit you see. A habit which can unfortunately throw a wrench into our entire day.
They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and along those same lines I’d say that just as important is your first thought (or more likely series of thoughts) of the day. To have a set of positive first thoughts in the morning can mean the difference between you saying to someone later that your day was o.k., or even great, to horrible on the other end.
Thoughts are incredibly important as they set the tone for your mood, expectations, and emotional reactions throughout any given day. So if you often wake up with morning anxiety after scanning your brain for those negative thoughts try this little technique I’ve done in the past.
1. The night before (although difficult) don’t think about the next day too much with respect to your anxiety. I firmly believe that most morning anxiety is set up the night before. Don’t anticipate anxiety or anything else for that matter. Focus only on what you’re doing, like reading a book, watching t.v., or whatever you do before you snooze.
2. When you wake up don’t scan your mind. In other words, just do the things you normally would do and focus on that. Think shower, clothes, tooth brush, breakfast, one at a time. Keep it simple and keep your mind focused on a tasks, not imaginary possibilities.
3. When the negative thoughts come (because they always do) accept the thought immediately and and don’t attempt to fight it. You can also replace the thought with another more pleasant thought, an affirmation, or even self talk your way out of it. Whatever you do nip it in the bud asap. Don’t develop, nurse, or add variants to a negative thought. Just float.
Now admittedly this will not work overnight. You have to practice for it to have some effect. But in my experience it tends to work. The adage “if you don’t go looking for trouble there won’t be any trouble” really comes to mind. Just remember that although anxiety causes loads of physical symptoms, it is our mind, our thoughts, that lay the ground work for palpitations and all the rest of it – learn to curb negative thinking and you will be on the right path.
Side Notes:
In case you haven’t noticed the forum has been taken down temporarily. Unfortunately there was a spammer doing a number on the forum and I had to suspend it to avoid an overload of crappy links and garbage from being added to the little loved talk space. I’ve also been working on a few ideas for future post and trying not to just post for the sake of posting. I’m trying to be more useful basically.
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Hi Paul. These are good tips. The only thing I would change is the reaction you suggest for negative thoughts making an appearance.
Rather than rejecting these thoughts, Claire Weekes suggests you accept whatever thoughts may come, and accept them just as they are. Then move on. Fighting, or resisting our anxiety is the strongest factor in keeping it alive.
Seeing it for what it is, and simply accepting it as it is, we put an end to the cycle of fears and adrenaline repeating after one another.
In general, I believe it’s best to literally accept your anxiety just as it is. But realize it for what it is, just anxiety.
Good catch Danny. You’re right, and I made a slight change to entry # 3. Claire Weekes was right, acceptance has to be the path you take.
Rejection is not the answer – acceptance is.
My friend said to me; “You don’t find joy, it finds you. If you go scanning for fear, you WILL find it, so DON’T GO LOOKING.”
When I am attacked by negative thinking in the morning, I try my best to let it flow through me and out, like an anxiety breezeway. A lot of stuff blows on through, but none of it has a place to stay, and it is all meaningless and temporary.
When I first get up I start thinking negatively. It just turns on automatically. Usually it starts with just feeling really tired or just not wanting to face the day, my job, anything that is going to be a challenge or require too much energy. I start thinking about things I did the day before, that I’ve already dwelled on for long enough, but it’s never long enough with me, and replay them to ellict the same never feelings or worry about what might or might not happen today. For instance today I was worried that people were going to be asking me about my new years eve plans and for the first time ever I didn’t have any and I thought that they would think I was pathetic or lame or whatever. I didn’t want to lie either so I just didn’t want to deal with it altogether. I deal with social anxiety so others people’s perception of me or how I think they perceive me is what causes my anxiety.