Dear Kshiti:

“I tried something like this in that situation only to fail in keeping it“- there is a saying, if it works, keep working it, so if the Serenity Prayer works for you, repeat it, keep doing what helped before (but don’t expect it to help every single time).

“I am trying my best to accept all things in my life through a more neutral perspective“- there is a term, Radical Acceptance, which means to completely, radically accept (what we cannot change).

“Thinking about a purpose is empowering, and I did this activity once after coming to my university. It helped“- keep going back to this exercise, edit it, develop it, make it more and more true to you.

“About intrusive and self consuming anxious thoughts, what should I do to deal with them in a better way?“- first, understand the nature of thoughts: these are temporary events in the brain, nothing dangerous. If you are walking in nature and come across a mountain lion, that’s dangerous. Thoughts are not.

If  you try to block thoughts, they will intrude on you, insisting to be there (aka intrusive thoughts). Don’t be scared of thoughts, don’t try to fight/ block them. Instead, when a distressing thought occurs, say: oh, this is just a thought, and gently direct your attention elsewhere.

You can apply the NPARR strategy that I use every day for various distresses: Notice (in this case, that a distressing thought occurred to you), Pause (the repetition of the thought, rumination), Address (the situation, saying to yourself something like: this is a distressing thought. It is not dangerous. I am not in danger because of this thought. Thoughts are temporary events in my brain, they are not permanent), Respond (say or do something about it.. maybe in this case, journal the thought in a Thought Journal.. not sure), and lastly, and very importantly, Redirect (your attention elsewhere: a walk outdoors, a hot bath, a cold shower, a task like doing dishes, listening to music, etc.)

anita