Here's how your trusted & loyal DOG can help you stop overanalyzing everything to death in just 1 month.
Recognize this pattern?
The pressure yo feel inside just keep building and building...
The older you get, the more life keeps dumping on you.
At university, it felt like you were going to crack under the pressure, so you thought as soon as Uni is over you are going to be happy and so much better.
But instead, things just got worse...
Because when you finished Uni, you couldn't find a job for a long time and that made you so depressed.
Then you are thought, "everything will be fixed once I get a job. Then I’ll be happy.”
And finally, you did get a really good Job, with good pay, but...
You found d that you were still not coping because the good Job came with toxic staff members.
And on and on it goes.
Nothing seems to fix this internal sense of vulnerability. In fact, every milestone you cross just seems to make your worries worse.
If you can relate, then here's a really crucial point.
You see, many people wrongfully assume that the reason they are bereft with stress is because they are somehow intrinsically weak and as a result, they can’t cope like everyone else clearly seems to be coping.
And in their efforts to cope better, they try to think ahead through their problems, hoping that they won’t get caught out by some form of calamity that they weren't prepared for.
You see, that internal sense of commotion I described above does not exist because you are weak...
It exists because your well-meaning attempt to solve your problems before they happen, have sadly resulted in something I call the ”analysis whirlwind trap.”
What does this mean? What can you do to get rid of it?
This is exactly what I am going to share in this article.
Stacey came to me with this huge frustration
"I find myself over thinking every possible threat or minor thing in my life, so much so, they gain control over me and become all too consuming."
She continued…
“If not for Maple, I would have ended everything by now”
Maple is the name of her dog, an adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
She continued…
“The problem is that although I love every moment I spend with her, the minute I have to put her down, all the negative painful thoughts come rushing back.”
Sounds familiar?
You know how those negative thoughts keep flooding back as soon as you stop doing something engaging or important?
Well, in this article I’d like to share how Stacey used my Bonjela Technique, and the comfort she experienced from Maple her Cavi, to overcome her persistent over thinking problem in 30 days.
I call this technique the Ultimate Pet Support Method.
Then I’ll show you where you can download a 100% free worksheet that walks you through exactly how she did it, so that you can potentially get similar or better results.
To learn more, keep reading.
I filmed a short video, live on-line, showing one of our readers how to use the bonjela technique. You can watch that in the link below:
Important note: The bonjela technique only solves part of the over thinking problem; to get the full benefit from using it, you need to come back here to read the rest of this article.
Here’s a video tutorial of me walking another one of my former clients through the bonjela technique: Note how happy her voice sounds at the end of the video.
The Bonjela Technique: Video Tutorial on how to stop distressing thoughts
Essentially, the bonjela technique helps you to stop the compulsive thinking immediately whenever you want. However, being able to stop the excessive thoughts is only half the battle. If you stop here, your over analysing habit will keep resurfacing due to 2 major obstacles.
Stacey had to overcome these 2 obstacles to break through her over thinking problem and I am sure you’ll recognise these obstacles too.
Next, I reveal the 2 obstacles so that you can avoid falling for them, and then I’ll take you through the step by step technique Stacey used.
The first obstacle to breaking free from the over thinking habit is “OUR GOOD INTENTIONS.”
Sounds confusing? Let me clarify.
You see, Stacey believed that a lot of the life problems she now faced were because of the many wrong decisions she’d made in her past.
For example- Not making the best use of the opportunities she had when she was younger resulting in the financial mess she was in; or not choosing the right father for her children, which meant the kid’s didn't have a dad around to care for them or keep them in order.
As a result of these past mistakes she often thought-
“How did I let things get this bad? Now I feel like I have to keep analysing every stupid mistake I've ever made in my life to make sure I don't fall for the same traps again.”
After ten years of relying on the above way of thinking, Stacey realized that despite thinking like this for so long, she was still falling for the mistakes she was trying to avoid.
Her good intentions to avoid making mistakes by trying to learn from the mistakes were contributing to the over-thinking problem and then this was promoting more life problems for her.
If you can relate with Stacey’s experience so far, you are probably thinking,
“What do I do now? It all seems like a no win battle.”
But there’s hope, as stated earlier. Stacy eventually broke out of her over analysing pattern. She developed the ability to ride the storm with a sense of controlled calm, no matter what was happening in her life.
And no, it is not that she became complacent with her problems; she did something that made her a lot more effective at dealing with her life problems, and I’ll share exactly what she did later in the article.
Next I’ll touch on what I believe was the biggest obstacle to overcoming over-thinking that Stacey had to face. And I bet you’ll recognise this.
The biggest obstacle to dropping the over-thinking problem was that Stacey’s “problems were real and multiple in nature."
Getting everything done, whilst feeling so much pressure inside felt like an impossible task.
There were so many different pressures she felt had to be done for fear that if she didn't do them, everything will pile up and her world would collapse
Can you see how reasons for the “over-thinking whirl wind” just keeps on growing?
However, a word of warning. I’d like to admonish you to not just conclude that you are doing this to yourself like so many people do.
You see, Stacey was often frustrated that her family members and friends kept telling her to just ignore or stop thinking about stuff.
This way of thinking creates a dangerous but hidden problem that most people fail to see, so if you can relate, I want you to take note of this.
The over-thinking problem IS NOT YOUR FAULT. And Science has evidence that backs this up as well. I discussed this in my article where I introduce something I call…
You see, when faced with multiple real life problems, the emotional sabotage naturally encourages us to fall into a “There’s no way out syndrome.”
This has a tendency to sabotage our ability to cope by over exaggerating the catastrophes created by the threats we face. As a result, we naturally use all our time and energy for trying to break free of the problems because this feels like the wisest thing to do.
The consequence is that we end up putting little or no effort into learning skills that sustain us whilst in the process of addressing our real life problems.
We take it for granted that we will be able to cope, but eventually begin to feel like we are crumbling under the weight of the problems. The side effect of this is that our over thinking naturally becomes intensified and this is the dangerous hidden culprit caused by real life problems.
Now, in the free worksheet below, I reveal the 3 step ultimate pet support method.
This is the exact strategy I taught Stacey. The technique enabled her to drop out of the over thinking pattern and it helped her feel more resilient and confident even though she was still faced with her real problems.
Below is a quick overview of the detailed step by step instructions you’ll find in the worksheet. I also make it crystal clear how this strategy can benefit you.
Most people assume wrongly that the problem with over thinking is over thinking itself.
However in my 20 plus years of working in the mental health field I have come to realise that the problem is not over thinking itself, but over thinking in a “mostly negative and inefficient way.”
When our thinking time becomes more effective we naturally experience a reduction in time spent thinking heavily and negatively. But don’t take my word for it, try it out for yourself and see.
Here are the things you need for this technique to work
Here's how this works.
You see, the bonjela technique helps us to become well practised at stopping painful thoughts from taking over our daily experiences.
The benefit of this is often taken for granted.
I once had a client, who was in so much physical pain due to severe arthritis that she had to walk curled over with a stick. Little did she realize that her over analysing habits contributed massively to the pain and the extent to which that pain was disabling her.
After only one week of practising the bonjela technique, not only did she become less depressed and anxious, but to my amazement, she literally walked into the next session a little more upright and get this, She was without her stick as well. She confirmed that her pain was a lot more manageable.
Now on the subject of pain, many people don't realize that conditions like depression tends to leave people with a vague sense of pain and body aches as well.
Using the bongela technique can be a very effective way to manage this vague sense of pain.
Click this link for a research paper on the connection between pain and depression.
To create the bonjela technique, I combined some of the most effective mindfulness and compassionate focus strategies.
Click this link to watch a video on what The BBC had to say on the benefits of meditation on pain management, especially for looking after the brain.
Brain scan shows that meditation boosts the brain (You'll need a flash enabled browser to watch this).
Now on page 2 to 4 of the free downloadable worksheet below, I guide you through how to use the bonjela technique with the help of your beloved pet.
Then go to the next step.
What's the trick?
Regularly take time out for a practical objective review of problems.
SAY WHAT!!!
I know… Review of problems?
You’re probably thinking
“I already do too much of that; isn't that what I need to be breaking away from?”
It is wise to learn from past mistakes, and an objective review of the problems we experience helps us to achieve this.
However there’s a trap to be aware of. Whenever we focus on past mistakes or on what’s not going well in our lives, we can easily be sucked into a sea of overwhelming negative thoughts.
This is the ”over-analysis whirlwind trap” I introduced at the start of this article.
And In step 2 I show you how to avoid this trap, so that you can learn from past mistakes and also learn from your present negative experiences without getting sucked into that sea of overwhelming negative thoughts.
Please note: This has to be done in a specific way or you could end up in a distressing self-feeding negative cycle that triggers more intense anxious or depressive feelings.
The crucial point!
The more stressed you feel, the less able you will be to manage emotional sabotage.
The more emotional sabotage takes hold, the more likely you are to become overwhelmed and flustered in your thinking. The end result is that you spend even more time over thinking.
To avoid this growing overload what we need to do here is to literally schedule out-time to take breaks and do activities that are refreshing for our mind and body.
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