How the people on the bus are your thoughts analogy has helped me
My previous psychologist used to use the analogy above. She told me to picture my thoughts as people on a bus and I am the driver. This became a running joke in our house that when I was panicking the people were on a very bumpy road. Or being thrown around the bus. But it wasn't until this morning that the true meaning of what she was trying to say really hit me along with what it mean't for me. So if I'm the driver that means I'm in control. I realise that I feel responsible for the people (thoughts) on the bus. That I should listen and attend to those people's wishes. I was taking my thoughts on board as being true. I then imagined if these were real people on a bus and they were telling me 'you can't do it' or 'the situation will go badly' I would likely defend myself. So why was I letting my thoughts tell me what to do or how things will go?. I am just constantly belittling myself and catastrophising. I then thought what if I replaced those thoughts with 'Let's wait and see' instead?. If my thoughts tell me I can't get on a bus I just say 'Let's wait and see'. I can even back this up with positive things like. 'I've been on a bus before and I got there just fine. In fact it was fun to go shopping when I got there. So Let's just wait and see how it goes this time'. I wonder if acknowledging my people ( thoughts) and implementing let's just wait and see into my thought process will help atal?. I'm going to give it a try.