Stop obsessive thinking by practicing this powerful ancient routine

by Martijn
Practice this powerful ancient routine to stop obsessive thinking

What you will find in this article

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Are you in a loop of compulsive thoughts and you can’t seem to stop them? Then this article is for you because I’m going to share an incredibly powerful ancient routine to obliterate and stop obsessive thinking forever.

This week someone reached out to me for help because he recently had experienced an anxiety attack for the first time in his life. When I was talking to him to find out a bit more of the background and his situation it quickly became clear that I had the answer for him since I had gone through the same thing myself.

What are obsessive thoughts?

So, to start, let’s first define what obsessive thoughts are. It’s pretty simple. They are repetitive thoughts about the same topic that you can’t seem to control and that make you feel bad. 

This type of thought usually occurs when you are entangled in a situation in which your present life does not reflect a certain desire you hold and cannot materialize for whatever reason. Let me paint a picture for you. Over four and a half years ago I went through a breakup. This girl meant absolutely everything to me, I was deeply in love, and with her by my side, I felt on top of the world. Then, suddenly she broke up with me, without giving any explanation. And she disappeared.

How compulsory thought patterns are created

That put me in a position of desire, of wanting to have something impossible to transform into reality. The realization of my wish did now not depend on me. She would only return to me because of a decision that she would make, and I had very little to no influence in that.

And this is the moment that the loop of obsessive thinking was created. Let’s break it down; I had no opportunity to fulfill my desire. That could only lead to two possible outcomes.

  1. I could let my desire go.
  2. I could keep it alive in my mind.

And here is where people who enter into a dynamic of obsessive thoughts make the mistake that can potentially lead to anxiety and depression. The fear of losing this person created an erroneous assumption and to somehow keep the link to this girl alive I entered into a continuous cycle of wishful thinking about the future and ruminating about the past with her as the main subject. Day in, day out, for over four years.

Techniques to stop obsessive thinking

So, how did I stop it? Very simple. I stopped it.

When you search the Internet for this topic you will find a lot of techniques, strategies, tips, advice, etc. A common one is to replace the obsessive thought with another more positive thought, or yet another one which I find pretty funny is to internally shout to yourself “cancel, cancel!”. Also, something I see frequently is the suggestion to create some kind of a distraction for yourself. This could be in the form of physical activity or anything that requires your active attention. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure these approaches can have a positive effect. Although, I highly doubt their effectiveness in the long run.

Things you need to know before you can stop obsessive thinking

However, there is a much more powerful way to completely stop obsessive thinking and it’s much easier than the techniques I just mentioned. Before I explain the technique itself it’s important to understand a few things.

You, keeping the subject of your desire alive in your mind in an obsessive loop, are energetically stalking your subject. Thoughts are energy, and thoughts are non-local. Meaning they inadvertently maintain the energetical connection with, let’s say the person who dominates your compulsive thoughts. So, without you realizing it, you are achieving the opposite of your desired result. Your thoughts make you feel bad and are energetically pushing the other person away.

Whatever needs to happen will happen

Another important thing to know is that the idea that not thinking about the other person will make you lose her or him is completely based on a lie. In the world of forms, it already happened. You lost her or him. And in the non-dualistic reality, it’s impossible to lose anything. So, the only way out of this mental self-destruction is to accept it and to move on. Whatever needs to happen in your life, will happen. Don’t worry about that. It will because it already did.

The last thing you need to understand before I explain the technique is that it’s not true that you cannot control your thoughts. Although many times it might seem to you that thoughts come and go without your interference. This is not true. It takes a lot of practice but ultimately you decide what you think. Always.

The ancient technique to stop obsessive thinking

Alright, by now I imagine you’re eager to find out how to stop your obsessive thoughts. Let’s assume that you don’t control the thoughts that come to you. Understand that the problem of obsessive thinking is not the first thoughts that come to you, apparently out of nowhere. It’s the thoughts that you create and build around those first thoughts that get you in the negative cycle of destructive thinking. So, what all the wise and enlightened men and women from ancient times already knew and practiced is to intervene between those first thoughts and the ones they create and build around them.

It’s been called meditation, it’s been called mindfulness, others might call it active inner observation, and yet others prefer to call it detachment. It’s all the same. It’s the technique of non-resistance, of zero-intervention. This might seem very hard to do this because you think you don’t control your thoughts. But there is a simple trick you can use. A simple phrase you can and should ask yourself every time you catch yourself entering into these compulsive thought cycles.

Do I want to keep these thoughts?

Do I want to keep these thoughts?

You already know they will lead you to episodes of anxiety, depression, and self-destruction. And with this simple question you expose the power you carry within yourself. The power of choice. The power of responsibility and self-awareness. All of a sudden you realize that you do this to yourself. And that you are not a victim of your thoughts.

You now have a choice. Do you keep these thoughts, do you feed them, do you give them time to continue broadcasting in your mind? Or do you observe that first thought and decide that you have something more valuable and important to pursue in life? And you choose to simply continue your observation and to keep your full attention on the things that serve your higher purpose in life. And you choose you, you choose life, you choose freedom. Now it’s up to you.

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