No need to rack your brains for a way to stop your rude thoughts.
Dr. Daniel Amen, a board-certified psychiatrist and brain imaging researcher in California, suggests deep breathing to slow down fast and relentless thinking.
“Four seconds, hold for a second and a half. Eight seconds away, hold it for a second and a half,” Amen explained in a TikTok on Monday. “So it’s a 15-second breath. If you do that for just three or four minutes, it tends to really calm things down.”
Amen said if diaphragmatic breathing doesn’t work, try vigorous exercise, which has been shown to increase levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin in the brain.
Fairlee Fabrett, a psychologist at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital, says anxiety is often to blame for racing thoughts.
“People who struggle with race thoughts are constantly worrying about what needs to be done, what hasn’t been done, and what will happen next — or they obsess over past, present, or future situations,” Fabrett said. last year.
“When racing thoughts take over your mind, you can’t stay focused and feel stuck, which makes you even more anxious and stressed, and the cycle continues,” she added.
Like Amen, Fabrett recommends exercise—perhaps doing a set of push-ups or 10 jumps—to calm anxiety.
She also suggests acknowledging racing thoughts to gain a sense of control over them, counting your breaths, distracting your mind by reading or calling a friend, and scheduling time to work on the thoughts immediately.
The Cleveland Clinic notes that a fast brain can make it hard to fall asleep.
Behavioral sleep medicine specialist Michelle Drerup last year advised meditating before bed, engaging in progressive muscle relaxation by tensing and relaxing each muscle group in your body, stopping screen time well before bed, and journaling your thoughts. negative in a “disturbing” diary and positive thoughts in. a “gratitude” journal.
“Engaging in gratitude right before bed results in a calmer body and more positive thoughts before bed,” Drerup said.
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