Hi Nick,

I have experience with Intrusive Thoughts and they can truly be debilitating.

It’s helpful to understand what an intrusive thought is and why we have them. It may also be comforting for you to know that the most common topics of intrusive thoughts are religious and sexual of nature. You didn’t divulge the extent of your intrusive thoughts and I wouldn’t want to press upon your sensitivities, but just know that no matter how dark your thoughts are, you are not alone and it is very common.

Do know that I have experienced what you’re going through and the solution that helped me, may be surprising.

Firstly, Intrusive Thoughts are a component of OCD and are most common in people with extremely high morals. If we have a thought we fundamentally disagree with, we push it away out of repulsion. But, the act of resisting a thought actually causes those thoughts to come back. It can be incredibly distressing. Particularly when the subject matter is of a highly sensitive nature.

Stress is a precursor Intrusive Thoughts. The brain perceives a threat to your survival and therefore signals to you that you’re in danger, by way of intrusive thoughts. You then get trapped in a totally illogical cycle because the only ‘danger’ you’re in is the distress produced by the thoughts your brain is producing!

Here’s what transformed my experience:

Managing stress levels, respecting my limits and pulling away when things get too much. Exhaustion and poor quality sleep increase anxiety and therefore intrusive thoughts, so getting enough rest is paramount.  Eating foods rich in probiotics (Your gut is your second brain and regulates mood). Interestingly, the Solar Plexus chakra, while a mental chakra actually regulates emotions, so when the Solar Plexus chakra is inharmonious (closed or chaotic), it indicates extreme emotional conditions.

Not resisting the thought. What you resist persists. It’s extremely difficult but if you allow yourself to have the thought and not react to it, disenaging completely, you allow the ‘life cycle’ of the thought to complete, therefore breaking the cycle.

Inner Child work. Active dialogue with the intrusive thought. I came across this quite naturally and found that I resolved many root beliefs that fed into my Intrusive Thoughts, in doing this. When I dialogued with the Intrusive Thought, I’d be transformed to the originating scene in my childhood and be able to comfort and reason with my inner child.  However Robert Johnson, a jungian pyschologist, asserts caution with this method and potentially working with a therapist to do this, as some of the imagery that comes up can be intense. His book Inner Work is an interesting look at working with subconscious imagery.

But here’s the crucial part:

The ‘topics’ of intrusive thoughts that I’d fed an extraordinary amount of fear into (family related also), were stored within my energy field, creating form and density. In the same way trauma is held physiologically, so too are thoughts and emotions, if their proper flow is interrupted and they become stuck.

I was working with an incredible healer who quite literally saved my life twice, during intense episodes of intrusive thoughts. She removed the fear based energy from my energy field and from that point forward those topics never bothered me again. I was totally clear of them. She inspired me to become a healer because I had first hand experience in how powerful and transformational it is.

Manging Intrusive Thoughts is a holistic process which must be approached from many different angles. But please, if they become too much please seek professional medical help as medication can at least pacify them to some degree. Meditation doesn’t resolve them but is necessary to get through the rough patches.

I hope some of this is of some help!

Emma

http://www.emmavergara.com