When you’re stressed or worried about something, it’s difficult to think about anything else.
It’s as if your mind is stuck on the stress channel as you think about one stressful thing after another.
Although it’s almost impossible to turn off the stress channel once you’ve turned it on, you can learn to change it by playing the name game.
In this game, you focus on something you see, hear, or smell in your environment and then name it.
For example,
- If you’re in your bedroom, you might look at the blue comforter on your bed and say softly to yourself, blue comforter.
- Or you might hear the sound of the television downstairs and say, television,
- You might even smell the chocolate chip cookies that your mom is baking and say, chocolate chip cookies.
Try to name things as quickly as possible while scanning your environment for sights, sounds, and smells.
