By Aditya Shukla, psychologist, Cognition Today
1
Repeat an emotionally loaded word that appears in your thoughts at high speed for 30 seconds at your normal speaking volume
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Repeating the word out loud forces the brain to repeat the neural firing in your brain. Quick repetition of that neural firing weakens the neural connection. That causes the word to lose its emotional weight. It's called reactive inhibition. Losing the meaning by over-exposing your mind to a word without a real context creates "semantic satiation" - the word itself feels meaningless, alien, or wrong.
2
When your negative thoughts pop into your head, change the tone of those thoughts by using a funny or silly voice out loud. Make your thought "sound" as silly as possible without changing the words.
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2
A silly voice makes the thought less intense because of the sound properties of the thought. Even though the words are the same, the physical form of the thought transforms into a light, easy-to-digest form. That makes the thought's negative emotional intensity less believable but keeps the thought's exact meaning acceptable. Now you create a diluted version of the thought with less emotions.
2
Slow down your thought verbally or mentally like it is in ultra slow-motion. If your thought takes 1 second, repeat that sentence mentally or out loud over 15 seconds.
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3
Slowing down the sentence of the thought (or just the phrases or ideas) changes the physical form of the thought and makes it unnatural and less automatic as opposed to the natural negative thought you are used to. The slower the better, make the thought take a lot of time to even complete itself. Speak out so slow that it feels weird.
Self-SHAMING
Anxiety
STRESS