Have you ever watched a scary film?
If so, have you noticed that there’s rarely any dialogue in the jump scare moments?
The film directors rely on music to build the tension, building and building as the music gets louder, all the time leading to the jump scare moment just at the point the music reaches its crescendo.
And you jump, even though what happens is usually as predictable as tomorrow being a day ending with a y!
But have you ever watched a scary film with the sound off?
If you haven’t, you should try it: you’d notice that it’s nowhere near as scary without the sound.
In fact, it’s hard not to laugh and if you played some comedy music over it, you almost certainly would! A clown just looks like a comedy clown, a man standing by a washing line just looks like he’s going to get those nice clean sheets dirty.
It’s the same with our mind.
It’s the noise in our head, not the thing itself that frightens us.
“We’re not afraid of what we think we’re afraid of, we’re afraid of what we think.” Michael Neill
Whether it’s planes, heights, our boss, bank balance or general state of the nation that we think makes us feel anxious, those things are nothing without the musical accompaniment of our thoughts.
The repetitive, often automatic, music of our thinking playing on repeat and building the tension, creating the fear. Getting louder and louder and louder, building more and more tension & anxiety.
And if you turn the music off – turn down the volume of our thoughts – we also dial down the fear and anxiety too.
So, if you’re tired of being spooked by the scary movie of your mind, get in touch to find out how I can help you turn down the volume of your anxious thinking.