Hi Anita,

I agree with your thoughts above, that it very well may be anxiety that is fueling my intrusive thoughts. It’s interesting, because I am well aware that my life would NOT be perfect in the absence of these thoughts, and that life is never perfect for anyone ever. But nonetheless, those are the thoughts that still run through my head. I will say the thoughts about body image, perhaps because it is a bit more of a sensitive issue, feel to be more intrusive than others (or at least they feel more intrusive at the moment). To give you an example of other intrusive thoughts, I spent about a week thinking about how I wish I had applied to X, Y, and Z for college (when I was applying to college about six years ago) or how I wish I hadn’t done various minor actions years ago. One practice that has worked well for the latter intrusive thoughts is to repeatedly tell myself “that ship has sailed, no use thinking of the past now.” That doesn’t seem to help as much for the body issue thoughts though.

For moving ahead, what would you suggest I start doing? I had started the practice of meditation about three years ago, but have lost the habit completely. I think starting that up again is a great idea. Any other thoughts on the anxiety in general/body issues and the thoughts of the related incidents?

As always, you are amazing Anita. Thank you!