How stuck does your brain get?

Practice meditation to help still your thoughts.

I recommend picking up some Eckhart Tolle cd’s and listening to his work. Good stuff.

You can access some of his works online @ www.eckharttolle.com

Yes, I tend to be a little bit obsessive. Not in the creepy, stalkerish sense of the word..
I do tend to dwell, or get stuck in thought patterns, no matter how much I’d like to avoid them. Do these thought patterns interrupt your life? Make it difficult to concentrate or cause you anxiety?
You might want to discuss it with your doctor or a therapist if you’re unable to distract yourself or redirect your thoughts.

If you’re stuck with an idea, start by writing down what you know what’s true and what’s false. Spent time thinking about why it’s true and why it’s false. Then talk to people about it – what else could be true, and what else could be false? What could make the false, true and vice versa.

This happens to me often. I tend to over-analyze a lot of situations in my head over and over again about things that have either already happened or are currently happening and are out of my control. Sometimes it causes me to over-explain myself because it will drive me nuts if I can’t expose all of these thoughts out in the open. It definitely makes my thoughts and feelings stuck on the situation when I should have moved on ages ago and in turn can make me panic or worry way too much or put me into a funk.

One thing that helps me, is applying the law of attraction. Simply put, you focus on and think of the things you do want rather than what you don’t want. If you focus on the things you do want, you tend to attract them more often than if you focus on the things you don’t want. For example, instead of saying something like, ”I don’t want to fail”, you say, ”I want to succeed.”
It really inspires and encourages positive thinking which in turn helps your feelings and mood.

I agree that perhaps meditation will help. If you’re a beginner, like me, check out the book Meditation: A Beginner’s Guide. My friend bought this for me and it’s a short, easy read and the exercises have helped with my anxiety before.

Sometimes you have to take a step back and say, “in the grand scheme of things, is being stuck on this shit really worth it?” You’ll most liking say ‘no’ and then start from there. It’s not easy and I think it’s certainly normal for a lot of people. It’s just important to get these thoughts under control before they become unhealthy and compromise your happiness.

Good luck. :)

I think I know what you are going through, as I have had those “mental ruts” before. It’s like you keep thinking of the same thoughts over and over——you know it’s a problem, but it’s hard to get out of it. Sometimes it’s just a small incident that happens during the day, and you can’t seem to let it go, or a thought that sticks with you. It takes a lot out of a person, and it can be quite exhausting because you expend so much energy thinking or “dwelling” on it.

One day I happened to be in the library, and I came across a book by Dr. Claire Weekes, entitled “Hope and Help For Your Nerves”. After having just read a few pages in it, I seemed to find the help I was looking for. Here are a few tips Dr. Weekes gives to remedy the problem—-

1) When you start to think those thoughts, don’t fight it. The more you try to prevent them from entering your mind, the harder it becomes to stop it. Just let the thoughts and unwanted ideas “come”, and let them “float over you”, let them pass, calmly.

2) Get enough rest, for a tired brain is a vulnerable one, and oftentimes obsessive ideas and thoughts plague a tired brain much more easily.

Dr. Weekes has a few more tips on how to deal with this problem. I think it is summarized in this review of the book below. Good luck.

http://panicfreeme.com/96/hope-and-help-for-your-nerves-review/

@MRSHINYSHOES

Yes, if you have not yet mastered transcending thought through a meditative practice, allowing them to flow through your awareness without attachment or judgement is the starting point.

Your thoughts are like clouds, you are the sky, watch them come and go as clouds on a backdrop.

Cry or have a good laugh and be determined to change things first thing in the morning.
Exptreme emotions can always clear ones head. No one can guide your steps but you.
Tomorrow make plans on what are the best ways to change things or shake them up so you get unstuck.

When I’m thinking of my wife naked, there is nothing but time that can remove my mind from that thought.

OCD or depression can lead to ruminations.