Accepting Your Thoughts with the Help of Acceptance Therapy
Believe it or not, there are many people who have wild, sometimes even disturbing and horrifying thoughts that run through their mind. Although none of the horrifying thoughts that run through a person’s head are reality, some people treat them as they are. A person might become upset over their thoughts and worry that they might somehow be a danger to others.
Obsessing over thoughts and thinking you are somehow a danger to others, is only harm to yourself rather than to others. If you obsess over your thoughts, you will end up worrying yourself over nothing. Psychologists feel the best way to overcome obsessive and disturbing thoughts is to accept them rather than fight them. Learning how to accept your thoughts with acceptance therapy can help you greatly.
Steps You Can Take
There are various steps you can take toward the acceptance of your upsetting thoughts. It is important to recognize each step and how it can help you. The steps are as follows:
Acknowledge your thoughts – Forcing yourself to not think about upsetting thoughts is likely to make you think about them even more. The best way to control your thoughts is to acknowledge that you are having them. Write them down each time you experience them and rate them on a scale of 1 to 100 with 1 being thoughts that don’t bother you to 100 being thoughts you find intolerable.
Let the thoughts fade away – When you stop fighting your thoughts, you will find that they are much easier to control. Take the least upsetting thoughts you have and write them down on a separate sheet of paper. Place a cloud around each thought. Write the thoughts down multiple times in different clouds. Stare at the page and then shut your eyes and imagine the clouds with your disturbing thoughts simply fading away.
Rinse and repeat – Continue to repeat the steps listed above until one-by-one, your disturbing thoughts begin to melt away. Also, when writing down your thoughts, do not attempt to censor yourself. It is important that you are completely honest, even with yourself.
Make sure you are never ashamed by the thoughts you are having. It is normal to have thoughts that seem disturbing and even abnormal. Truth be told, several people have bouts of disturbing thoughts, but the majority of people do not act on those thoughts or carry out horrifying acts. Likely, you are not going to do anything, either. Acceptance therapy can help you better understand your thoughts so you can gain control over them.
If you find that you are still having trouble with your thoughts and trying to control them, speak with a qualified therapist. A therapist can provide you assistance with acceptance therapy. You will find that speaking with a therapist may even help you better acknowledge your thoughts so you can take control and clear them from your mind.
Monica Ramunda is a cognitive behavioral therapist with offices located in Louisville and Denver, Colorado for in-office visits. With a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and more than 18 years’ experience in therapy and counseling, Monica works as both a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Registered Play Therapist (RPT) with adults and children respectively. Much of Monica’s success is based on her eclectic orientation and drawing on a wide range of different approaches and techniques all while remaining strongly grounded in the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT).
