Mental Health Spring Cleaning

Have you ever had thoughts that go around and around in your head? If so, get ready to learn some innovative tools to rid yourself of them. Repetitive thoughts are basically unprocessed issues that the mind wants to resolve. To resolve them, there are a few strategies that may be of great help.

There is nothing worse than trying to go to sleep and being tortured by what you did, what you should have done, and what an idiot you were. Well, maybe I am referring to myself, but repetitive thoughts can be a living nightmare! The solution can be as simple as writing your thoughts out.

Freeform writing is the process of simply putting pen to paper and writing out whatever is on your mind. Give yourself a good ten to fifteen minutes to write whatever presents itself. If there is a blank, write about the blank, and soon more information will surface.

Our mind is fascinating! There is the surface level and subconsciousness. Many of the mental health problems we suffer from stem from thoughts underneath the level of our awareness in the subconsciousness. Freeform writing is a perfect tool to get to the subconscious material that may have been stuck there for years! If it seems like such a simple process wouldn’t work for you, think again, this is a great tool to purge your unwanted thoughts once and for all.

In the book “The Artist’s Way,” the author suggested using freeform writing each day and for a minimum of two pages. This was to help people be more creative and of course, more spontaneous in their lives. Now, if this process doesn’t do the trick for you and those pesky thoughts are still there, then more of a deeper exploration may be needed.

Emotional Cleansing

Emotions have a language of their own. As a therapist, it is always fun for me to educate women on emotions, because, let’s face it, women, as a rule, tend to be more complex than men. There is actual science to this. There are brain differences between men and women. For women, the connection between both lobes of the brain is five times larger than men’s! This is why women are better at multitasking than men and men can usually handle only one thing at a time. Process that men, and just know that women have already processed it five times faster.

The language of the emotions takes place when we “become” a feeling. Be anxious, be angry, be hurt and give that feeling a voice.

For example, “I am afraid! I am afraid that this pain in my back is really serious! I must have cancer! I am going to die!”

At face value, this doesn’t seem very healing, however, when we apply love to our anxiety, it fades. This is accomplished by communicating with anxiety with love.

For example, “I am here for your anxiety. You are okay. I care about you and let’s relax for a second together. You are not alone. You are strong and loved.”

The above conversation can be accomplished through the use of Opposite Hand Writing. Opposite handwriting allows you to have a conversation on paper where your opposite hand represents the emotion or fear in this example, and your dominant hand represents the loving part of your personality.

In sectioning off different parts of your mind, you can train yourself to have one part that is always reasonable and in control and not have all of you freaking out!

When we give a voice to our emotions, we release all that pent-up energy stored in our subconscious mind. If we don’t let out this steam, repeating thoughts will result, anxiety will appear, or we will get depressed, which is anger turned inwards.

There are great methods of releasing pent-up emotions that don’t necessarily involve writing. A walk while shouting can be helpful to release anger. Though, make sure people aren’t around. Also singing something out is helpful. I am sure this is where Punk Rock got its start.

I’ll leave with a little story, which took place when I was a green intern, many years ago at Tarzana Treatment Center.

A person rushed into my office while I was in the midst of a session. This person had a fire in their eyes and was looking for blood. I quickly removed the client and asked the person to sit with me. Bad move for a rookie, but I didn’t know any better. I asked this person to jot down everything that was bothering them. So, for a few minutes this paper was filled, top to bottom with items. Then came the gaze at me. I asked them to rip up the paper into small pieces and hold it in one hand, which they did. Then I asked, on a count of three, for them to toss it into the air with a shout! Which they did. “Well?” I asked. The person still had a fire in their eyes. So I asked them to scoop it up and repeat. Once again they tossed the shreds of paper in the air, looked at me, and began laughing. They said, “This was the most ridiculous thing I have ever done, but I sure feel better.”

Psychology can be effective if you find the right tool for the right issue. Come on in and let’s help you do your own spring cleaning on you. Those pesky thoughts can soon be a thing of the past.

Compassionate Care is Always Available

There are many more tools and strategies you can use in your pursuit of happiness. Here is where we come in. Contact us at Basic Steps Mental Health and let us support and educate you on this journey back to your loving heart center. Imagine living a heart-centered life, regardless of what is happening externally. We’d love to be of help.

For 25 years, Dr. Scott Alpert, the clinical director of Basic Steps Mental Health, has treated over 7,000 people with mental health and addiction problems, using a Psychological approach that mixes and matches ten of the top approaches used in the industry.  We are here virtually and in-person to help you get through this COVID-19 pandemic and many other difficulties you may be experiencing.

May you have good mental health.