by John Hewitt

Created on: May 07, 2009   Last Updated: May 11, 2009

Bad thoughts unfortunately are inevitable due to the very nature of the human condition. We all look back at events in our lives that bring up old memories and darker feelings. We also have a tendency to think the worst or go forward in time and imagine what could happen. So how do we suppress all this? We shouldn't. I know from personal experience both within myself and to loved ones around me that the suppression of bad thoughts simply does not work. There is a build up of pressure that will need to be released one way or the other. That is what lead to a major breakdown in my own life and in the life of someone I know dearly.

Thought itself is simply that. It is thought. Now this is where I will get controversial. Thought has absolutely no inherent power of itself. It is the intent and focus behind the thought that gives it the ability to effect us deeply. I can remember times in my past that were embarrassing. Looking back just after the event made me cringe. Now when I look back it is hysterical. The thought has not changed only my attitude to the thought. If I decided to focus on the humiliation aspect then I am infusing that thought with that particular attribute and thus it will bring out that response within me. However allowing the thought to be just that,a thought, allows it then to be a fleeting image as if I am just watching a cinema screen.

Now, dealing with heavy or traumatic thoughts is more difficult because we have attached more meaning to those thoughts. The emotional response I get from remembering an embarrassing moment compared to a severely traumatic moment is obviously different. Yet suppressing those thoughts gives them extra power by forcing them down into the back corridors of the mind where they fester and gain more power simply by not being released. I once had a psychiatrist who told me, during an intense recounting of an incident that happened to me, that he could see I was broken but basically do not worry and here is some medication. The thoughts were not dealt with and thus my condition became worse. Things improved as I released those thoughts by not attaching any power to them.

Now, I know what I am saying is purely a personal view. Yet it is based on what worked for me when I had no other option. I was given no external help and so I needed to deal quickly and efficiently with the trauma so that I could move on and no longer be bound by the past. My method for dealing with bad thoughts had three steps.

Step 1

I had

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