The key is not to try harder to stop thoughts; it is in changing your relationship with the thoughts and your beliefs about them. Then, they don’t need to be stopped and are no longer fed the energy that maintains them. The same can be said for distraction techniques. Here is the issue with them: When you try to distract yourself from intrusive thoughts, you are reinforcing the idea that you need to keep away from them. That implies that they are somehow dangerous and might lead to something no good. That is the wrong way to look at them. Furthermore, when you distract yourself, although it
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