September 9 2024

5 Techniques to Redirect Your Thoughts to Reduce Anxiety

Thought redirection is a powerful tool I share with many of my clients to help them work with difficult or negative thoughts. Anxiety is one of the most common difficulties I find in the people I work with. According to the World Health Organization, over 300 million people struggle with anxiety disorders a year. Whether it’s anxiety while driving, anxiety at nighttime, or just general stress during the day turning into anxious thoughts, there are things you can do to support yourself!

What is Thought Redirection?

Thought redirection is exactly what its name implies: redirecting the thoughts to something different. Specifically, we use thought redirection when the mind is stuck in a painful or unpleasant pattern of thinking. We re-focus our mental attention onto something new, breaking the cycle that can suck us in quickly and consume us.

For example, you are in bed at night and the mind begins going about all the things you need to do for your job. This nighttime work anxiety is tough to escape, and you find yourself totally sucked into the thinking mind. As you notice yourself begin to fall into this pattern of thought, you use a redirection technique to focus on something new and leave the negative thinking behind.

How Redirection Works

There are a few things worth noting before jumping into actual thought redirection exercises. In order to implement these techniques in our lives, there are a few things we must understand first.

First, we must have some level of awareness or insight. In order to know when to use redirection methods, we need to be able to see our thoughts clearly. Otherwise, we won’t know that it is time to use our redirection tools! This may be through mindfulness, journaling, or talking about your experience with a friend or therapist.

Next, we have to acknowledge what is present with a non-judgemental attitude. If we are aware of the negative thoughts and respond with anger or frustration, we’re throwing more fuel on the fire. Instead, we can practice just noting without judgement that the brain is going off into a negative loop.

Now we implement thought redirection. Only once you see the thoughts and emotions clearly should you move your focus to something new. We consciously direct our attention to something new (techniques below), leaving behind the thinking that is causing us pain and difficulty.

Finally, we should reflect and investigate what happened. Again, this may be through meditation, journaling, or talking it out. The point is we cannot just redirect our thoughts every time they are stressing us out and hope they never return. Instead, we may reflect on what triggered the experience, if there’s anything that can be done during the day to lessen the experience (such as exercise, meditation, therapy, etc.), and recognizing how well the redirection worked for us.

One thing to note when you’re learning how to redirect thoughts is that this technique is meant for an in-the-moment difficulty. It is a powerful standalone tool, but it is best coupled with other techniques to lessen overall anxiety and stress. There are many things you can do work with anxiety, and small actions you can take during the day to help work with these thoughts and free yourself a bit from anxiety. It will be beneficial to also incorporate some form of mindfulness, exercise, healthy eating, therapy, and/or social support. Getting therapy dogs can also be a great tool for helping you redirect thoughts and ease stress and anxiety.

How to Redirect Thoughts

Understanding thought redirection and how it works, let’s explore some techniques you can use when the mind is stuck in those anxious thought patterns.

1. 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Noting

This is one of my favorite practices for a number of different things. It’s often used in general as a grounding exercise for any time someone is activated, so feel free to use it as you see fit. Here’s how it’s done:

Begin by noting (out loud or in your head) 5 things you can see
Note 4 things you can physically feel
Note 3 things you can hear.
Note 2 things you can smell
note 1 thing you can taste

You can repeat this practice as many times as you’d like. Sometimes, I do a few rounds myself and try to note new things. By doing this practice, you are redirecting the mind’s attention onto other sensory experiences. Try to really tune into each sense as you go through this practice.

2. Anchoring Noting Practice

This is a practice that comes in large part from my training as a meditation teacher. In insight meditation, we often note what is going on in our experience as a practice in observing without judgement. Again, you can do this practice silently in your head or out loud.

Start by recognizing who you are, where you are, and when you are. Then move on to what is going on around you and within you. So it may look something like this:

I am Elizabeth Sockolov. I am in New York, New York. Today is Monday, September 9th. It is 11:20am. I am sitting at my desk, in my office, in my home. It is raining heavily outside. The air feels humid. I can hear my dog, Carol, barking. I wonder what I will eat for lunch. I am hungry.

You can continue as long as you’d like, noting whatever is present in your experience right now. If you find the mind going to the past or future, just note that the mind is thinking about the past or future, but try not to get sucked in.

3. Recognizing Colors

This is a practice first introduced to me when my husband shared it with me while he was in therapy in his early 20’s. Similar in a sense to the 5-4-3-2-1 practice, it gives you a way to use the eyes and seeing to leave the negative thinking behind. To do this practice, simply pick a color and see how many things you can find around you that have that color. Notice the different shades of the color, the different items, and how they look. You can repeat this with more than one color if you still find yourself anxious or activated.

4. Play the Categories Game

This one is purely a thought redirection. No other senses, just the mind. Pick a category in your head that is completely unrelated to the anxiety or stress you’re experiencing, and name as many things as you can. As always, you can start with a new category at the end if you wish to continue this exercise.

Any category works, and individuals will often find with practice that they benefit from some categories more than others. For example, I may benefit from more positive-leaning categories, while others may benefit from more “boring” or straightforward categories. Some examples may be ice cream flavors, car models, dog breeds, favorite movies, types of plants, countries, favorite songs, or sports teams.

5. Recite a Poem or Song

Finally, you can use the recital method to redirect thoughts. This may work better for others, depending on your love of music/poetry, but give it a shot. To do this exercise, simply recite a song, poem, or book passage that you know well in your head. Again, it may be something relatively boring, or something more positive to try to get the mind out of the negative loop.