thought on average theybrought to mind the thought of a white bear more than once per minute When we suppress thoughts we essentially tell ourselves to thinking about The mind then monitors itself for each time it does think about and then brings to our conscious awareness Instead of criticizing yourself to stop thinking or worrying about this or that consider challenging the thoughts that bring on anxiety REPLACE NEGATIVE THOUGHTS When you have a thought that keeps repeating in your internal narrative pull out this thought record 1 What triggered the What were you doing or imagining when the thought occurred to Considering an invitation to a neighborhood potluck 2 What is the that accompanies this one will talk to me feel like an outsider feel insecure 3 Label the you feel when you have these thoughts and the intensity of each emotion on a scale of 1 to 10 5 6 9 9 4 Is there anything that is not supportive of the in invited me to the party so someone wants me there do make small talk with the neighbors from time to time live in the same neighborhood so we at least have that in common