Category: Anxiety

Psychologists have been using variations on this technique, but this is the first study to show it works.

To get rid of negative thoughts, write them down on a piece of paper and literally throw them away.

While it might sound too easy, psychological research shows it can be effective.

People in the study who did this found they also mentally discarded the thought as well.

Professor Richard Petty, study co-author, said:

“However you tag your thoughts — as trash or as worthy of protection — seems to make a difference in how you use those thoughts.

At some level, it can sound silly.

But we found that it really works — by physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts.

Merely imagining engaging in these actions has no effect.”

To some extent, we treat our thoughts as though they are real, material things.

Think of the metaphors we use, said Professor Petty:

“We talk about our thoughts as if we can visualize them.

We hold our thoughts.

We take stances on issues, we lean this way or that way.

This all makes our thoughts more real to us.”

For one study, people were told to write down either positive or negative thoughts about their own body image.

The results showed that physically discarding the pieces of paper had the effect of discarding the thought.

Professor Petty said:

“When they threw their thoughts away, they didn’t consider them anymore, whether they were positive or negative.

In another study, sometimes people kept the pieces of paper in their pocket.

This had the effect of prolonging whatever thought they wrote down.

Professor Petty said:

“This suggests you can magnify your thoughts, and make them more important to you, by keeping them with you in your wallet or purse.”

A third study tested whether it was really necessary to physically throw the piece of paper away.

It turned out that it does help to really help to throw it away, said Professor Petty:

“The more convinced the person is that the thoughts are really gone, the better.

Just imagining that you throw them away doesn’t seem to work.

Of course, even if you throw the thoughts in a garbage can or put them in the recycle bin on the computer, they are not really gone — you can regenerate them.

But the representations of those thoughts are gone, at least temporarily, and it seems to make it easier to not think about them.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Briñol et al., 2012).

The Anxiety Plan is an online course that is included in the Premium Membership.

The course is designed to help you regain freedom from anxiety, transform your thinking and make lasting changes.

With a Premium Membership you can now access the whole of The Anxiety Plan course immediately online.

A Premium Membership also gives you access to all members-only articles, premium content and other courses, as they become available.

The Anxiety Plan course

Severe anxiety is a trap that can destroy your quality of life.

It stops you from doing the things you want and enjoying everyday aspects of life.

Years of research shows that the most powerful way to change the emotions is to change the way we think about them.

Within everyone is the capability to live well — but learning to do so is not always easy.

This is not a ‘think-positive’ style course: it is a realistic and rational course about dealing with anxiety.

It will help you transform your thinking and make lasting changes.

It is possible to discover the capability within yourself to live well.

Start now.

A practical, easy to read self-help guide

This anxiety course is all about doing and changing.

It encourages a focus on changing your thoughts, behaviours and responses to situations.

There are numerous short sections with many action points.

It contains no theory and very little technical psychological information.

However, it is based on the latest anxiety research.

The points will be useful for anyone experiencing common anxiety problems.

The aim is to help you to see your anxiety differently.

Covers all the main anxiety issues

This anxiety course covers the most common types of anxiety issues and how to deal with them.

These are:

• Generalised anxiety and worry: for people who constantly worry about a wide range of issues, rather than something specific.
• Social phobia: for people who feel that social anxiety is blocking them from getting the things they want: relationships, promotions or just human contact in general.
• Specific phobias: for those with fears of things like the environment, snakes, spiders, enclosed spaces, blood, injections and so on.
• Panic: for people experiencing intense fear, including a very strong physical reaction and the sensation of being about to die or losing complete mental control.
• OCD: for people experiencing intrusive thoughts that are repulsive to them and possibly engaging in repetitive behaviours.

Each section contains specific strategies that are most useful for each type of anxiety issue.

These, along with the general guidance for anxiety issues, can all help.

This anxiety course can help you

This four-part anxiety course describes scientifically-proven strategies for dealing with anxiety.

Most are derived from a type of long-established technique called ‘cognitive-behavioural therapy’ (CBT).

This has been used for many years to successfully help people improve their lives.

Part 1: Changing thoughts

• Changing damaging self-talk like catastrophising, black and white thinking and noticing the negative.
• Guidance on how to accept thoughts that cannot be changed.
• Exercises to help you monitor your thoughts.
• Ways to escape from ingrained habits of thought.

Part 2: Changing behaviours

• Conduct simple behavioural experiments to explore and deal with your anxiety.
• Learn to face fears that may have plagued you for years.
• Understand how to take risks in everyday life.

Part 3: Strategies for specific anxiety issues

• Generalised anxiety and worry.
• Social phobia.
• Specific phobias (such as fear of spiders, blood or flying).
• Panic.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Each section has specific exercises tailored for that type of anxiety.

Part 4: Keep going

Coping with common problems that people face in trying to make progress with their anxiety, including:

• Choosing targets for your plan.
• Tracking your progress.
• Solving common problems.

Practical exercises

Throughout the course there are 42 practical exercises designed to help you change your perspective on anxiety.

They are designed to help you:

• Identify the way thoughts interact with behaviours and emotions.
• Deal with the tendency to avoid situations.
• Address negative self-talk.
• Learn to take small risks.
• Incorporate mindfulness into everyday life.
• Sort ‘hypothetical’ fears from fears about real events.
• Maintain these changes over time.

Enroll in The Anxiety Plan and transform your thinking today.

Researchers reveal the truth about shopping to feel better.

Shopping to try and recover from negative emotions can only make things worse, research finds.

Typically, negative events make materialistic people run to the shops — but it only helps them feel better in the short-term.

The results come from a study that examined how people coped with terrorist attacks.

Professor Rindfleisch, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Materialistic people cope with bad events through materialistic mechanisms.

People who are materialistic suffer higher levels of distress and are more likely to compensate for that through higher levels of compulsive and impulsive purchasing.”

The researchers found that people who were more materialistic had higher post-traumatic stress along with higher compulsive and impulsive consumption.

Professor Rindfleisch said:

“In times of stress, people often seek solace through shopping.

The idea here is that we need some form of a cultural-based coping mechanism, because the research suggests that there is actually a short-term fix with retail therapy.

Soon after purchasing something, there is a reduction of anxiety.

But it doesn’t last very long.

It’s fleeting.

Materialists seek that as one of their coping mechanisms.”

A separate survey carried out in the US found that low self-esteem made it harder to cope with difficult events.

Professor Rindfleisch concluded:

“If you’re a materialistic individual and life suddenly takes a wrong turn, you’re going to have a tougher time recovering from that setback than someone who is less materialistic.

The research is novel in that an event that’s unrelated to materialism will have a stronger impact on someone because of their materialistic values.

In other words, materialism has a multiplier effect.

It’s a finding that I think is especially interesting given our consumer-driven economy.”

The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Ruvio et al., 2013).