Walking Is a Great Off-Switch for Negative Thinking

Wouldn’t it be great if our brains had on/off switches that allowed us to turn off all negative thoughts? Great? It would be awesome. Almost all of my personal misery is produced by negative, obsessive-compulsive thoughts that I often cannot control.

I realize that, as a safety mechanism, I learned as a child to live inside my head. The real world, and so many of the people in it, wasn’t safe. Living in my head seemed safer, and it probably was until I grew into adulthood.

Living in my head began to work against me in my teen years. Yes, it kept out much of the cruelty of the real world, but it also created a fearful, paranoid very small world inside of me. And because I unknowingly had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), that world became a nightmare of compulsively reliving  bad experiences and creating imagined scenarios that were equally as unpleasant (“What if” thinking).

There is a reason why animals are happier than humans. It’s true that they stay in the present moment. They have memory, but they don’t have the power of reflective thinking like we do. They don’t live in their heads. They live in the now— enjoying the moment, instead of making an imaginary nightmare out of it.

Reflection is important, but beating ourselves up for the past or looking for ways to beat ourselves up in the future is insane. I can’t always control my OCD. I wish I could. Sometimes I have to face an avalanche of horrible thoughts and feelings, and I’m forced to wade through the panic while my Higher Power holds my hand. All I can do is wait it out until my brain-chemistry returns to a balanced place.

Whether my day finds me in a good space or an OCD nightmare, I pray that my Higher Power will help me to focus on the now. I can help myself get out of my head by getting out of the house and being active: walking, talking with others, attending a concert, etc. For some reason being trapped in the house and being trapped in my head are synonymous; probably because I hid in my room a lot as a child, teen and young adult.

If you are stuck in negative thinking, turn it over to your Higher Power and ask for the freedom to see the bigger picture of the present moment. Then get out of your head by leaving that small world and venturing into the bigger, real world. Just walking outside can reduce anxiety and panic tremendously, and help us to be more clear headed.