Not happening now – sidelining persistent thoughts

The use of a phrase like “Not happening now” can help help you to sideline persistent thoughts that make it harder to practise mindfulness.

If, for example, someone interrupts you rudely in a shop queue and you didn’t have a chance to object, that interruption can return to your mind many, many times. You re-run the scene, you say in your head what you wish you said in reality to the interuptor and so on.

After you’ve had these thoughts a few times you might want to drop them but they keep coming back (I’m assuming that in real life you won’t be able to make your objections clear to this person who may be a stranger who has vanished into the crowd.)

Staying in the moment for any length of time can become more difficult because of the re-running of these thoughts.

One tactic that helps is to use a phrase like ‘Not happening now’ to interrupt the thought when it comes back and then get on with whatever it is you were doing. If the thought stays around for a while, don’t get involved with it – just say ‘Not happening now’ and go back to whatever else you were doing.

It’s a simple tactic that works better the more you use it.

To build on this: My online course Easy Mindfulness can help you to develop a life-enhancing mindfulness practice.

See also: Return again and again to the moment – video

Image by Nareeta Martin

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