Are you afraid of your thoughts?

Imagine your phone’s battery is dead, and you're sitting in your room with nothing to do. What happens? Do you feel relaxed or restless, try force starting your phone and immediately need something to do on your laptop, or read, or cook? Does being alone with your thoughts make you anxious?

Believe it or not, there's actually a term for the fear of being alone with your thoughts: Phronemophobia, the fear of thinking! A lengthy word, pronounced as /fr??ni?m??fo?bi?/, it indicates genuine discomfort with your own mind and fear of your thoughts. Even the idea of being left alone with our thoughts can evoke anxiety or restlessness in many of us. But why?

Research suggests that our minds naturally gravitate towards negative or distracting thoughts, making it challenging to enjoy moments of silence or introspection. And that is scary because as John Milton said,

"The mind is its own place, and in self,

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

A recent study showed that most people struggle to enjoy "just thinking." Left alone, they had trouble focusing, preferred even boring activities?to quiet contemplation, and chose to shock themselves?rather than face their thoughts!

Hold on, what? Yes, people would rather shock themselves with electricity than face their thoughts.

Phronemophobia might seem like a big, fancy word, but it's actually about something pretty common: feeling uneasy with our own thoughts. Even though it might sound extreme, lots of us deal with this discomfort in different ways.

For example, when things get quiet, some of us rush to do something, anything, just to avoid thinking too much. Or we might feel fidgety or worried when there's nothing else going on. So, even though it might not affect everyone in the same way, this fear of thinking isn't as rare as we might think.

But here's the good news: reflection, contemplation can lessen this fear and give us inner peace. Just being mindfulness and meditating can be powerful tools, helping us approach our thoughts with curiosity rather than fear.

So, next time you have a quiet moment, why not give it a try? You might be surprised by the positive thoughts, memories, and dreams you find within. And if not, you can always choose to focus on positive things and fill your mind with them!

#Mindfulness #mentalwellness #innerpeace #selfdiscovery #Phronemophobia #Psychology #positivethoughts