A few years ago , my wife , Calli , and I went to New York City for the weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary . We went in December , when the city is alive with decorations for Christmas and packed with tourists . ( Pro tip : You have to go see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree , but only if you can tolerate ridiculous crowds .)
There ’ s lots to love about New York , but one of the things I especially appreciate is the transportation system — specifically , the subway , for a couple of reasons . First , using it makes you feel like a native New Yorker , not some poser from Texas . Second , it ’ s unbelievably cheap . For just a few bucks , you can go anywhere in the city you want . Compared to Uber , they are practically giving free rides away .
During our trip , we planned to meet some friends for dinner in another part of town . Since we love the subway ( and didn ’ t want to pay ten times the price for a taxi ), we headed to the closest subway station . We had to figure out which train to take and quickly discovered that iPhone maps don ’ t exactly work great underground , so instead we pulled out the oldfashioned paper subway map our hotel gave us .
After spending way too much time trying to figure out what all the different-colored lines on the map meant , we realized the subway train we needed wasn ’ t working . We ’ d have to take a different route to our destination . We were confused . Do we take the F train ? Do we take the A train ? What do we do ? We had to get it right because the train we took would determine our direction and destination .
But I am a guy , and well , we guys don ’ t normally love asking for directions . It might make us seem weak . So I didn ’ t ask . With confidence , my wife and I hopped on a train , thinking we were heading to downtown Manhattan .
We were actually going toward Brooklyn . We were headed entirely in the wrong direction and didn ’ t notice until we got farther and farther away from where we wanted to be .
What do you do in this kind of situation ? If you ’ re smart , you recognize you have to get off the wrong train . Then you get out your oldtimey map again and figure out which train will take you in the right direction .
What does this have to do with anxiety ? Not much , except everything . Our minds work in a similar way to a train . We even have a term for this . We call it a “ train of thought .” Just as a train takes you in a specific direction , our thoughts take us to a destination . Unfortunately , our thought life can take us in directions and to destinations we don ’ t want .
Trains of Thought
Have you noticed that the thoughts you have are usually not just “ one and done ”? When we allow anxious thoughts to stay in our minds , they invite other thoughts like them to join . Maybe these are some “ trains of thought ” you have taken :
The WebMD Train . All of a sudden , you have a sore back and wonder , What could this be ? So you go on WebMD , type in your symptoms , and get results like appendix rupture , kidney failure , and cancer . ( Why does it seem like cancer is
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