How do you get out of your head, get rid of negative chatter?

[Kat]

How do you get out of your head, get rid of negative chatter?

[AmyC]

I plug in an NA speaker CD that usually takes it away right away or I call another addict in recovery.
It seems that when I bring the negativity into the light it disappears or gets greatly reduced.

[deebee]

This is a question i would love to see more answers too. I have a major problem with dealing with this. It’s driving me insane!

[benana]

Soothing music.

Keeping busy.

Breathing.

Exercising.

Learning new things.

Calling recovering addicts.

Going to meetings.

Working steps.

Positive affirmations spoken into the mirror or repeated in the car.

Getting out of myself and trying to help other people instead of worrying about how bad my own life may be or how bad of a person I am.

Taking personal inventory. When I do something wrong, admitting it immediately and getting into the solution. I could have just done the worst thing I have ever done in my life, but that is already in the past. Stay in the solution.

All of these things sound really corny but they work. The cornier, the better.

[benana]

Forgot to add: dancing to really girly pop music.

[benana]

And learning languages.

[Gemm]

One thing that has helped me over the years is working at a hobby that I enjoy and know I am good at. This gives me a chance to give myself kudos or pats on the back myself when I really need a boost in my esteem or just a positive moment or two in my life when negative wants to take over and run away with me and my feelings, thinking etc. The more I need to concentrate on that hobby though the better able I am to stop that negative self-chatter and start channeling it in a more positive direction. A few that I use even now when that starts to happen are sewing, planning a new garden or garden related project (latest is making Toad Houses for decorations – I’ll try to find a way to upload a few pics of some soon LOL), word games such as cryptograms, crossword puzzles (NOT seek-a-words) and sudoku, cross-stitch or other needle work where I need to concentrate which is why crochet usually wouldn’t be one of these though I do enjoy that as well.

Many of the ideas already given are great as well. I didn’t think they needed repeating though I will repeat one. Anything that has to do with positive aspects of working steps and/or reading/studying our literature. I have always found much solace and ability to redirect my thinking in our literature, even though all we had for many years was the Basic Text. There is much in our literature to give hope and that can really help boost ones esteem and thus help fight those nasty negatives in my life.