@PujaDas-by3gx Exactly. The brain has nothing better to do than gossip, so best to just live your life and let it gossip all it wants.

Thank you!

I attend weekly meditation sits on the Mental Fitness Discord Server and we have a little study group there exploring the Blue Cliff Record, a hefty Zen text from many years ago. I keep up-to-date on dharma talks from two temples I enjoy visiting: Dharma Drum Mountain and Upaya Zen Center. I've visited both for week-long retreats recently. While moving around, it gives me opportunity to do retreats or visit key temples in the Soto Zen tradition I enjoy practicing in. And I meditate on my own wherever I am. There is no difficulty to bringing my practice with me each day while I travel. It is a very flexible sport. I don't have a specific teacher or temple that I'm attached to currently, though. That could be something I explore in the future.

It really helped me to recognize that the disruption and distress was the result of me doing compulsions. The great thing about that is that we can change those compulsions. Doing therapy isn't about trying to find more compulsions to try control and clean away thoughts. Instead, it's about learning how to drop the compulsions and interact with experiences differently. So it doesn't have to "work". We do the work and practice the skills. And instead of spending time and energy on thoughts, we can give that time and energy to growing and caring for the things we want in our lives. That's even something we can practice today!

Yes! It's very common to see a sentence like: "I'm not doing any compulsions but the thoughts won't go away!" << And that is a definite indicator that we're still trying to clean away the brain stuff.

@@REL602 It's a very popular thing to think.

@Kirara792 I don't know anything about you or the context of the situation so it would be much better to speak with somebody like a therapist, a doctor, a family member, etc that you can discuss things with and that can provide assistance

@everybodyhasabrain I have watched your video about recovery and headache, I know I may have eliminated the compulsions but the thoughts keep repeating until the top of my head is often tense, I wonder if I will recover, is there a therapy that eliminates more physical symptoms?

@Kirara792 It could really help to connect with supports that can have a more in-depth exploration of changes you want to make and skills to help make those changes. It can be useful to consider the compulsions may not have been eliminated.

@@everybodyhasabrain thanks mark ❣️, i will evaluate again, i hope you are always open to discussion

@@Bray-sy4eu You didn't share any details of what you're doing. There is no way I could possibly answer that question

You're welcome!

Is the changing of the belief taking actions that we value as opposed to labeling true and false beliefs in our head?

Yes, I would start with where we want to go and the beliefs that are useful for going there. Then we practice the actions that take us where we want to go, which align with those useful beliefs. We don't need to be trying to clean away some old belief as a goal.

It is great to have that awareness

My last comment I realize was a little rambling and run on sentence but I have listened to a lot of your content & you have been a big big huge part of my journey to improving my mental fitness! and lately I have been not listening to as much OCD content because I am working on other things of value to me but this video was exactly what I needed at this moment because I was dealing with old thoughts that I thought I had moved on from allowing them to alter my actions. thank you! I am curious to hear your thoughts if you have any guidance

@VeganowledgeJJ There is not a longer video. It is a Short.

@ ok awesome thank you!

You're welcome!

We change beliefs through actions. If somebody wants to drop some unhelpful beliefs around contamination, they're going to start doing actions that interact with things based on different criteria. For example, they may set a value like giving the best donuts to people. Giving the best donuts may require them to touch things they judge as contaminated in the past. But they're going to line up their actions based around what's best for sharing donuts with people. Can you see that current beliefs you hold are creating issues and that there could be more useful beliefs to pick up? If you want to share an example of a more useful belief you'd like to bring into your life, I can share specific examples of exercises I'd explore around that.

@@everybodyhasabrain Thank you I think I understand. For example I want to write a book but when I sit down to write I have the need to turn my computer on and off multiple until the feeling is "right" clean" but if my value is on writing my book and reaching that goal then that excitement of writing is of value to me so I turn it on and begin working instead of that compulsion?

@VeganowledgeJJ if we value writing a book then it is useful to spend our time and energy writing instead of practicing compulsions at the computer. We can feel the urge to do a compulsion but instead choose to do the writing

@@everybodyhasabrain awesome very helpful thank you for this

@@latenitehvac868 Enjoy exploring these skills in practice!

@sanjh6085 Yes, and lifting weights in the gym creates sweat and burning sensations in our muscles! Maybe even a faster heartbeat as we lift heavy things. That is very natural if we want to build skills and capacities.

@@luna03100 if only he had learned how to accept uncertainty and cut out compulsions before going on a journey to hell!

@@Stesmith-xg4ry How could I know what to do in those situations? I don't know what the situations are about. Won't the best path be different depending on the specific decision and context, rather than who is proposing the idea?

@Battle.Spectator This is a classic reassurance compulsion. Do you also notice how you're giving away control over your life in the question? As though living your life is something to expect, like it's something that happens to you. Instead of approaching your life like a thing somebody else will tell you about, it could help to shift the focus to the things you want to do in life. And then identify the actions of doing those things. And then do them!

@everybodyhasabrain alright sir 🙏❤️

@@slimmiles3361 It could be useful to consider why you would connect those together? Personally, I don't know what logic would lead somebody to conclude that feeling stuck means anything about the path I'm on. There are many other ways to interact with feelings and identifying where we want to go in life and how to go there.

@everybodyhasabrain I think it's the fear of making mistakes or being on the wrong path even if i know am doing something that alligns with my values

@slimmiles3361 when we're trying to chase certainty about a fear like that, it's just like trying to be certain about contamination. Then the brain will always create whatever feeling we believe will lead to the bad thing we want to control.

@@everybodyhasabrain so please what do u advise I do moving forward should I let go of the fear

@slimmiles3361 I find it useful to focus skills and changes around the things we want to grow and build in life. If the fear is there or not, that's all fine. I'm going to give my time and energy to things I actually want to grow in life. Instead of spending time chasing certainty about a fear, what do you want to give that time and energy to instead?

@@msmaya.papaya This video and the channel on general focus on cutting out compulsions like those. I found it very limiting to avoid so many foods and wanted to learn how to eat them again. If you want to keep the compulsions like that, that's totally fine, but it is the opposite to what this channel focuses on, so the videos won't be very useful.

@vectoranvil This channel focuses on not doing things like compulsions. So repeating a phrase as a reaction to a thought isn't something I'd see as "working", or else why is there a need to continue the ritual?

@@mitalinath1068 Do you have a question you want to ask or did you just want to share that?

@everybodyhasabrain Is it OCD? Or I am actually a bad prsn

@mitalinath1068 oh, that's not a question, that's just a compulsion to check for reassurance

@@everybodyhasabrain Please tell me if is it normal to feel that much guilt for not confessing..

@mitalinath1068 This channel focuses on building mental health skills and cutting out compulsions. When we cut out compulsions, it's like cutting out any addiction. And it is expected that we experience uncomfortable feelings. Trying to clean away the uncomfortable feeling just fuels the addiction and creates more problems, so it's useful to cut out those compulsions and learn how to have feelings.

@meeksbraville7872 The video explains about cutting out the compulsions. Is there something specific you want clarification about related to the compulsions you're doing around uncertainties about being watched or paranoia?