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Steps of overcoming the brain's horror stories
From changing the response to anxiety to becoming aware of our fears, here are a few ways to overcome the horror stories of the brain.
The brain is always making up some scary scenarios. Usually for people with anxiety and stress, it is common for them to get into the loop of overthinking and assuming that things will always go wrong. "Our brains create the most terrifying narratives. And when we’re in the habit of taking our brains extremely seriously - this can be really hard to deal with. But when we can acknowledge that this is our primitive brain doing what primitive brains do and challenge the story it’s presenting to us… that’s how we can take control over the narrative back. Whatever the scary thing you’re most afraid of is, I want you to consider for a second what scares you the most about it," wrote Relationship Coach Rebecca Ore.
The expert further suggested a few ways by which we can get away from this loop of overthinking:
ALSO READ: How to stop overthinking? Therapist answers
Change your response to anxiety: The brain sometimes gets into the mode of creating terrible scenarios and this can elevate our anxiety levels. Instead of responding to anxiety in a terrified way, we should try to see the things happening in the background. We should understand that the brain is getting into anxiety mode, and we should try to stop it.
Get out of the brain and into your body: in case we are not able to handle the way the brain is making us feel, we should take a break and try to focus on the body. We should allow ourselves to feel the sensations and try to sit with them.
Separate facts from anxious thoughts: We should try to combat anxious thoughts with facts. Instead of delving into the thoughts produced by the brain, we should try to understand the reality of things and control our responses.
Rationally respond to fear: We should try to understand what scares us the most and then we should rationally respond to that fear, instead of panicking about it.
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