Anyone who can shed some light on this is much appreciated.

I've listened to session 3 for 2 weeks straight. I have been able to stop and change about 50% of my negative thinking, just by paying attention to my random thoughts. But some of the time, I will have anxiety and I can't seem to recall any negative thoughts. Obviously I had them, I feel like they are on the edge of my conscious mind, because I have anxiety. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to replace negative thoughts you can't remember having?

Adele

I've run into the same issue. I'll start a stressful activity, keep thinking positive thoughts but I'll get anxious and jittery all the same but that feeling eventually passes, whether or not I remove myself from the stressful situation. I think it might be that our bodies after a while will associate certain stimuli with anxiety and produce a surge of adrenaline, even if we don't have any negative thoughts about that situation. Does that make sense?

Yes, actually that does make a lot of sense. This is where we have to work extra hard to change the negative association. I think it's maybe like "muscle memory". If you learn a new dance or do the same exercise repeatly, your muscles remember what those moves are. So if waiting in traffic causes anxiety, you have to change the negative connotation associated with waiting in traffic. That's where the positive self talk comes in.

I like that idea of changing the negative connotation associated with a certain experience like waiting in traffic. I'm going to think about that the next time I'm in a situation that is uncomfortable or troubling. Thanks!

MatthewM

I have found lesson 3 as the best, but the most difficult. I have listend to it over and over, 25 times. I get the infomation, but sometime it is hard to program your brain for positive thoughts. I am having difficulty with this.

INDTom,

Are you writing down your negative thoughts as they come to you. If you are writing them down, how are you at replacing them with realistic positive thoughts. I tried for a while catching my negative thoughts and not writing them down, but that didn't work as well for me. So I tried writing them down and then writing down the positive thought replacement after it. That is the key, writing them down and replacing them, seemed to solidify the positive statements in my mind. The actual act of writing them down is what is so powerful here. As you write them down, you have to focus and clarify your negative thoughts in able to write them. It's starts slowly, but now I'm on week 7 and I really use my journal as a resource for handling my anxiety. Just today, I was worried about my son and he's getting his 3rd cold/virus in about a month. So I wrote down all the things that worried me about this situation. Then I wrote down the positive statements and I was able to look at it more objectively and I was able to comfort myself and be okay with my son being sick again. So as hard as it is to write them down and face them, you must do this step. Keep trying and you will succeed! Takes time, and patience, & perseverance.
Adele