Many mental struggles are based in thoughts. I didn’t say mental illness is based in thoughts – that is no more truth than saying tuberculosis or cancer are thought based.

One of my professors said, “The voice in your head that judges, criticizes, and condemns you is not your own. That is the voice of someone in your past who judged, criticized, and condemned you.” The task is to not allow that voice to continue speaking. Thoughts are where that voice lives.

Choice can be the pivot point between letting thoughts continue in the ruts they have created and making new thought paths. Interrupting automatic thoughts can be as simple as focusing on a tangible object. It can be anything, a pencil, a shoe, a piece of paper. Think about what it looks like, how it was made, how it feels. While you are focusing your thoughts on the object, your automatic thought train has been derailed, for a while. It takes consistent work to keep it from rolling again.

Choosing to interrupt automatic thoughts is the key. It is much easier to let those thoughts continue.