How's Your Thinking?

Do you suffer from having unacceptable thoughts? Thinking things that you'd be horrified for others to know about?

The problem is that the more you suppress these thoughts, the more they come back with a vengeance.

What if I told you that we all have unacceptable thoughts at sometime or another in our lives? Does that make you feel any better?

In his book "Opening Up - The Healing Power Of Expressing Emotions", James W. Pennebaker, Professor of Psychology from the University of Texas, says:

"Disturbing and intrusive thoughts usually occur when people try to suppress naturally occurring images that pop into their minds. At various times in our lives, all of us have had sexual, murderous, and even suicidal thoughts. Usually, these thoughts are not a problem in and of themselves. However, if the idea of having a particular thought is so repugnant, so threatening, so unacceptable that we immediately try to censor the thought, we may find that it returns to haunt us."

Pennebaker goes on to say:

"If you are plagued with unwanted thoughts, remember first that they are only thoughts. Accept them as your thoughts rather that try to fight them. One way to cope with thoughts such as these are to write about them in a self-reflective and emotional manner. What are these unpleasant thoughts? How do they make you feel? Why?"

I have been very interested in the research findings of Pennebaker. Basically, his research has shown that writing about traumatic experiences can lift feelings of depression and seems to have long term health benefits. I ran a month long course on "Writing Therapy" online recently. The course was split up into 7 lessons:

* What is writing therapy?

* Fear

* Anger management

* Grief and loss

* Restoring the inner child

* Love

* Forgiveness

After each lesson there was a writing assignment on that particular lesson for students to complete, as well as that they were expected to keep a journal. Most people who had participated fully in the course, said at the end that they found it a great release writing about such things, and some went on to say that they intended keeping a journal in the future.

So writing about our thoughts and feelings may be the answer for some people. If you are receiving counselling/therapy you may find that you are encouraged to keep a journal, or write a letter to someone you feel angry with but will never send. The very act of writing may help you to discharge negative emotions.

Negative Thinking

If you were to write down all the negative messages that came into your

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