Do You Have Scary Thoughts About Terrorism? Anthrax? Bombs?

When you think of all the things that terrorists do, do you get upset? Do you visualize what you are fearing?

Let's say you "see" a terrorist throwing a bomb. Why not take control of that thought and see the bomb dissolve? Do you see another plane hitting a building? Why not see it bypass the building and materialize on the other side, unscathed? The building the same as it was before? Do you see your children disappearing before your very eyes? Make them reappear!

Something that has been popping into my mind continuously for the last few minutes is ANTHRAX. And that’s exactly how it popped into my mind -- all caps! So I kept it right there, in my mind, in the big letters, then I saw each letter slowly dissolve. I did that every time it came into my mind, and finally it didn’t come back. That’s called taking control of your thoughts. Did I want to think of ANTHRAX? No. Did I think I could do something about it? Yes. Did I take the steps to do something about it? Yes. You can too.

Do you have thoughts that make you shiver, wake you up in the middle of the night, ruin your appetite, make you afraid to go out of the house?

Change that thought! How about from *I am so afraid I am going to die!* to *I am so afraid I am going to die-- from jumping over the moon until the cheese curdles!* Doesn’t that thought kind of make you smile at the ridiculousness of it all? If not, find one that does.

If a person yelled *Rape* and the person hearing it has been raped, what do you think her predominant reaction would be? Fear! What would she would be thinking? The same thoughts she’s had ever since it happened. What kind of pictures do you think she would be seeing in her mind? She would be reliving the experience. What do you think would be happening to her body? She probably wouldn’t be able to move a muscle from the fear. Why? Because she would be, in effect, reliving it by playing the same pictures in her mind as she had before. Her mind is associating everything as though it were real. What do you think would happen if she took charge of those pictures she is making in her mind? What would happen if she changed the outcome?

Let’s go back to terrorists now. When you hear the word *Terrorist*, what do you think? What type of pictures are you making in your mind? What is happening to your body?

Let’s see what we can do to change that. What type of picture are you making? Is it big? Close to your face? Veerrry colorful?

If it is big, snap your fingers and make it small. If it is close, snap your fingers and push it way, way back. If it is colorful, snap your fingers and change it to black and white, a dull black and white.

Of course, if it’s small, far away, black and white and it really scares you, then just reverse it to big -- ridiculously big, very close -- ridiculously close, and colorful -- ridiculously colorful. Work with your picture until you no longer feel the fear. Take control of your thoughts.

Or how about this? The rape survivor could see a picture in her mind of the rapist. Make HIM really tiny. See his tongue hang to the floor, his ears flapping in the wind, his nose running -- actually -- make him run away from her as he tries to catch up with it.

The goal here, believe it or not, is not to make fun of the rapist, the terrorist, or anyone. That’s not what we are about. What we are about is taking control of our minds. They just happen to be in the picture, making us laugh again, not so much at them, but at life and how we could have always taken control, but we didn’t. Silly us!

But, guess what? We are taking control now. If we can laugh when we see a picture of the thing or person that USED to scare us, then we have taken back control. The rapists, the terrorists, or whomever, no longer are keeping us locked up inside ourselves.

If you look at the quote on my web page http://www.tameyourbrain.com/index.articles.htm you’ll see: *We are in a war of the minds. If you don’t take control of your mind, you lose the war.* And wouldn’t that be a shame? Especially when it’s something we can do anytime we want.

Whenever you feel yourself shudder out of fear, make a funny picture. If you want to have control of your life, you need to take control of your thoughts.

Live life to the fullest. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at mailto:jan@tameyourbrain.com . I care.

~~~~~~~~~

Copyright 2001, Jan Tincher, All Rights Reserved Worldwide

---------------------------------------------------------------

Learn unique strategies and techniques for personal success from Jan Tincher online at http://www.TameYourBrain.com/subscribe.htm

==> Publishers, you are welcome to reprint this article in its entirety provided you retain the above resource box and include this notice, plus notify us of the day(s) you will be running it.