Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress, and Toxic Thinking

by Caroline Leaf

Here are some simple tips to make the embracing a little more palatable. Acknowledge that emotions, thoughts, trauma, and past experiences are not your identity. For example, you’re challenging the feelings of shame, not saying you are shame. Accept that pain is a nonnegotiable when doing the work to heal. Tell yourself that it will end eventually, even if it doesn’t feel like it will in the moment. Always remember that you’re never alone in this journey and that you deserve the love and support your loved ones give you as you reach out and ask for help. Remind yourself of past tough experiences you have overcome despite fear or uncertainty. Keep in mind that this painful part won’t last forever, and the sooner you learn to embrace it, the sooner you will move through it. And most exciting of all—as soon as you embrace it, the thought has weakened and is in the process of change—even if it doesn’t feel like it. Our nervous system and nonconscious change before we’re conscious of this change and experiencing it in our life.