In my 11th step reading on Saturdays, there is always a phrase that stick out to me about keeping the mind from morbid reflection. This is the part of the mind that takes any situation, no matter how benign, and spins it so far out of the norm that you find your heart racing and your mind going a million miles an hour. Before, the only way to break that cycle would be to drink it down. Now there is the serenity prayer and the asking of the higher power to help in the removal of these spinning thoughts.
Usually, for me, the serenity prayer, or, even writing in this blog is enough to tamp down the ghosts for a while. As someone who has particular low self esteem, it's difficult not to spin situations into areas that would show me in the worst light, or, treated in the worst way. As a recovering alcoholic who has been sitting in on meetings, listening to people, and hearing what works for them, I know this is also the disease trying to dictate my thoughts to get me back to drinking. All the work that I have been doing to get myself on the spiritual path has been to combat this disease. While my ability to cut off this negative and morbid reflection has not gone away, it has been tamped down and mitigated by the tools I have come by in the last few years.
The serenity prayer as a tool to break my thought patterns has really worked wonders for me (even if I need to say it 60 times an hour). It really works...
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