Sticky mind goes along with feeling anxious. One obvious aspect of the altered state of awareness we call anxious thinking is that threatening thoughts become extremely sticky. It is as if you are expecting danger and looking for it, so thoughts that feel dangerous—such as unwanted intrusive thoughts—stay glued to your mind. It’s like flypaper. Sometimes the theme of the content remains the same; sometimes it is different. Stickiness is a bit like those amusement park machines called “the claw,” in which the arm comes out, wanders around, drops, and randomly picks up whatever is sticking up in
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