On Intrusive Thoughts

One of the most challenging aspects of anxiety is dealing with intrusive thoughts. These thoughts seem to come out of nowhere and can be really uncomfortable — sometimes even scary. Rather than creating them from scratch, it seems as though our minds generate them based on our experiences — some of which are fear-related — and use them whenever those thoughts match our current state and how we feel in any given moment.

The law of conservation of energy applies here too: energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. In that sense, thoughts aren't created from scratch. They require external input—what we see, hear, read, and speak - our experience. They are energy being transformed.

Thoughts carry a certain frequency. They surface when there's a resonance with how we feel in the moment. They are shaped by everything we take in through our senses, and often the content doesn't match our situation at all—only the feeling does.

I remember during that phase of anxiety and panic attacks, feeling anxious about having a panic attack at the gym and having thoughts of a completely different topic — war, COVID during the pandemic, a situation from my childhood or at work. Could be anything, really nothing to do with the fear of having a panic attack at the gym — at least not in content. And although they weren't related in content, they certainly felt similar in the body — uncomfortable, scary. And where did they come from? My experiences, yes, but also the content I was feeding my brain: social media, news, me talking about my issues constantly, and everything in between.

If we think of the mind as a computer — the RAM actively processing what we're experiencing right now — our thoughts work much like when we do a search online. You know, when you want to buy a car and search for it, and suddenly car ads start appearing everywhere you browse? You open the news and there they are — car ads. The news site didn't create those ads. They were served to you based on what you previously searched for, following you across the internet. Our minds work similarly — what we give focus to creates more of it.

However, here's the empowering part: we have the power to choose. Just as we can tap "not interested" on content while we browse social media, we can decide which thoughts deserve more of our attention and which do not.

When I say the mind generates thoughts from experience rather than creates them from scratch, I mean it in a freeing, liberating way. We hear many times that we are not our thoughts — and I truly believe this. Not every thought that passes through deserves our attention or our energy.

I used to think of 'choosing your thoughts' as being like picking an item from a restaurant menu. But, in reality, it's more complex than that. When we find ourselves in an anxious state, it seems really difficult to force ourselves to "just choose" better thoughts. It's like telling someone who's feeling down to 'just feel good'. The missing piece is this: first, create the right internal conditions.

How? Starting with the body. Moving — through sports. By deliberately choosing the content we consume. By spending time in nature, getting sunlight, connecting with people we love, and showing up more as our true selves.

The right state makes better thoughts far more likely to surface.

I learned the hard way that trying to change thoughts by force— kind of using the mind against itself—is exhausting and rarely works. When an intrusive thought feels frightening, our instinct is to reject it, suppress it, or charge it with even more emotion. That resistance is often where the painful loop begins.

Choosing wisely is more complex than a single decision in the moment. It means becoming conscious of the words we speak, the content we consume, and the environments we place ourselves in.

During the health anxiety phase I went through, I wasn't just thinking about my symptoms — I was googling them obsessively and talking about them constantly. Like the car ads, this fed my mind more and more material at exactly that frequency. My brain wasn't inventing new fears; it was gathering that content and generating thoughts to help make sense of the intense emotion I was feeling and to keep me safe.

I believe this principle applies to any fear, any loop, any situation.

Change requires action. The way we live has a huge impact on the quality of our thoughts. One of the most powerful things we can do is build positive habits, and we need to start with what we have.

When we start training our body, spending time in nature, getting real sunlight, and choosing meaningful connections over endless scrolling (which is often artificial and anxiety-inducing), the quality of our thoughts begins to change. And if thoughts do influence our reality, then the quality of our lives changes too.

Thoughts are also a quiet tool that points us toward our deeper belief system. When a thought creates fear or anxiety, the body is communicating misalignment. It's signalling a belief we may be carrying that no longer belongs to us—one that doesn't reflect who we truly are.

The way we define intrusive thoughts changes everything. Instead of desperately trying to stop them, silence them, or get rid of them, we can begin to see them as important catalysts. They push us to grow. They invite us to the next level. With time and compassion, we can learn to listen without fear—and use them as tools for expansion.