Detaching from Thoughts
I simply step back and watch my thoughts as if I were watching a play.
My mind loves to write tragedies. I can take a missed phone call and spin it into a story of relapse, accident, or abandonment within seconds. Before Step Eleven, I believed these thoughts were facts. I reacted to the scenarios in my head as if they were actually happening, causing me immense suffering over things that hadn't occurred.
The image of watching my thoughts like a play has been a rescue raft. It creates a tiny gap between the thought and the thinker. When the fear script starts running ('He's late, he must be drinking'), I can step back into the audience. I can say, 'Oh, there's that scary scene again,' without jumping on stage and acting in it. I don't have to buy a ticket to every thought my brain produces. This detachment allows me to keep my emotional balance even when my mind is trying to pull me into the drama.
When a catastrophic thought arises today, I can visualize putting it on a movie screen. I will mentally eat popcorn and watch the 'scene' without getting up to fix it. I will say to myself, 'That is an interesting story, but I don't have to live in it.'
