Intrusive Thoughts: Why They Happen—and How to Meet Them Without Fear

Understanding intrusive thoughts through presence, not control

There are moments when the mind turns on us—not loudly, not dramatically, but in a way that quietly steals our sense of safety. A thought drops in uninvited and suddenly we’re no longer in the room, the car, the day we were just living. We’re inside the question of ourselves. This piece is an invitation to slow that moment down, to look at what intrusive thoughts really are, and to remember something essential: noticing a thought does not make it true, and it certainly doesn’t make it you.

There you are—moving through your day feeling steady. Familiar. Like yourself.

You’re answering emails, making lunch, driving, walking, living inside the quiet rhythm of an ordinary moment. Nothing is wrong. And then—out of nowhere—a thought drops in.

Not gently.
Not invited.
It cuts across your peace like a loud noise in a quiet room.

A thought that feels strange. Out of character. Disturbing.
And suddenly the body tightens.

These thoughts can take many forms. Some are subtle. Some are terrifying.
They can sound like:

• A memory you thought you buried long ago

• A sudden fear that someone you love will get sick, hurt, or die

• Unwanted sexual thoughts—being harmed or harming someone else

• Thoughts involving children that horrify you simply for having them

• Thoughts of harming yourself

• Thoughts of harming someone else

• A flash of doing something illegal or dangerous

• The fear that you forgot something important—the oven, the door, the baby

• Or the quiet pull back toward an old behavior you thought you had outgrown

And when they arrive, the question comes fast:

What is wrong with me?

So you do what most people do.
You panic.
You try to shove the thought away.
You feel shame.
You feel dirty.
You feel scared of your own mind.

Maybe you tell yourself, “Normal people don’t think this.”
Or worse, “If I thought it, it must mean something.”

Let me say this clearly, and slowly:

These thoughts are not unusual.
They are far more common than we admit.

We just don’t sit around talking about them—for obvious reasons.

But here’s something essential to understand:

If you are able to notice a thought, you are not the thought.

Intrusive thoughts are not a character flaw.
They are not a desire.
They are not a prophecy.

They are often signals—misdirected, exaggerated, poorly translated signals—from parts of us that are afraid, protective, unresolved, or overwhelmed.

And here’s the part most people get wrong:

Trying to push them away gives them more power.

You already know this in your body, even if you’ve never named it.
What you resist, persists.

These thoughts don’t need indulgence.
They don’t need analysis.
And they definitely don’t need punishment.

What they need is your presence.

Not the small, contracted version of you that’s scared and scrambling.
But the unshakable self—the part of you that is calm, steady, and capable of holding complexity without collapsing.

Think of it this way:

A frightened child doesn’t need to be silenced.
They need an adult in the room.

Many intrusive thoughts are born from parts of us that feel unheard, unsafe, or overwhelmed. They shout because whispering didn’t work. And when you meet them with fear or shame, they shout louder.

But when you meet them from a bigger place—from wholeness—something shifts.

This is where parts work and hypno-meditation can be deeply supportive.

Not to get rid of the thought.
But to relate to it differently.

In these practices, we don’t argue with the mind.
We listen—without letting it run the show.

We ask:

• What are you actually afraid of?

• What are you trying to protect?

• What do you need me to know?

And just as importantly, we let that part know something it desperately needs to hear:

I’m here.
You’re not in charge.
And you’re not in trouble.

You—the real you—are home.

Not ashamed.
Not panicked.
Not trying to disappear the experience.

Present. Grounded. Bigger than the sensation that created the thought.

When you meet these moments from that place, the nervous system learns something new.
The volume lowers.
The grip loosens.
The thought no longer needs to scream to be acknowledged.

You are not broken.
You never were.

You are someone with a sensitive, intelligent system that learned certain strategies along the way. And those strategies can be updated—not through force, but through presence.

Healing is not about having “good” thoughts.
It’s about having a steady relationship with your inner world.

And that begins the moment you stop running—and choose instead to stay.

Join me this January for a 3 Week Workshop on Intrusive Thoughts, Inner Safety & the Unshakeable Self, “When a Thought Intrudes on Your Peace". For more information and to register, click here.

Also you are invited to join The Life Design Membership this month to explore the depths of this and other topics using hypno-meditation!  Plus gain access to over a years worth of movement and hypno-meditation series replays on a variety of topics, live zoom classes each week and a partner on your journey to transformation. Click here  to learn more! Interested in working with me in private session? Learn more and book a discovery call by clicking here!