I’ve been trying it for the last couple of days. Current I have a gesture where I trace a lower case letter ‘n’ in the air for negative thoughts (I’ve had similar depressive tendencies to you) and ‘d’ for ‘distraction’ (my anxiety issues cause me to find distracting activities rather than concentrate on the task at hand that is causing me distress). So far it has been quite helpful its definitely interesting to notice when I’m distracting myself semi-subconsciously.
I’m also trying a ‘p’ gesture for when I’m going over past thoughts, a sideways gesture of dismissal to get something true but irrelevant off my mind and consciously smiling when I notice I’m thinking happy thoughts. But these aren’t as rigorous as yet.
I’ll report on my results later. Any comments on my methodology?
It sounds like a very good start. I can easily see how the use of letter can help with remembering the gestures. Let me know how the distraction one goes especially, because I have similar issues currently.
I’d say just monitor the process carefully. One, by trying to learn multiple gestures at once, you risk burning out on all of them. The two week timeframe seems like a good counter to that. Also, as I mentioned, be careful with a gesture for negative thoughts, especially because you have it linked to a letter. The gesture should be as general and sensation-linked as possible. That way you don’t ever spark negative thoughts as a result of the gesture.
I’ve been trying it for the last couple of days. Current I have a gesture where I trace a lower case letter ‘n’ in the air for negative thoughts (I’ve had similar depressive tendencies to you) and ‘d’ for ‘distraction’ (my anxiety issues cause me to find distracting activities rather than concentrate on the task at hand that is causing me distress). So far it has been quite helpful its definitely interesting to notice when I’m distracting myself semi-subconsciously.
I’m also trying a ‘p’ gesture for when I’m going over past thoughts, a sideways gesture of dismissal to get something true but irrelevant off my mind and consciously smiling when I notice I’m thinking happy thoughts. But these aren’t as rigorous as yet.
I’ll report on my results later. Any comments on my methodology?
It sounds like a very good start. I can easily see how the use of letter can help with remembering the gestures. Let me know how the distraction one goes especially, because I have similar issues currently.
I’d say just monitor the process carefully. One, by trying to learn multiple gestures at once, you risk burning out on all of them. The two week timeframe seems like a good counter to that. Also, as I mentioned, be careful with a gesture for negative thoughts, especially because you have it linked to a letter. The gesture should be as general and sensation-linked as possible. That way you don’t ever spark negative thoughts as a result of the gesture.