@Discombobulated

One technique that I learned that helped me is this.

It is a sort of guided imagery technique. We each inherit a brain. We don't get to the pick the brain we are born with. To use a very crude analogy, this brain of ours, this little three pound "meat computer" is getting all kinds of unasked for "hardware" and "software" downloaded into it from birth.

This comes from parents, relatives, teachers, the various arts and media, those in our circle of friends, enemies and acquaintances and so on.

This little brain of ours has sort of a prime directive to keep us alive and healthy and works 24/7 to this end, even while we sleep. At the same time it bombards us with a steady stream of thoughts, sensations and feelings triggered by all kinds of external and internal factors.

Sometimes it gets into obsessive streams of consciousness like feedback loops.

The trick that helps me most, and one I learned from a psychiatrist is this...

When being overwhelmed by anything simply take some time and repeat these words silently to oneself over and over again: "I love you little brain." I usually begin and end my day in bed with this little litany of words. It calms me down. It centers me. It distracts me. It helps me feel better.

A variation on this theme involves getting a little more specific. Hard to explain so I will give some examples:

I love you little brain even though you are feeling worried
I love you little brain even though now you are feeling worried about being worried.
I love you little brain even though now you are feeling kind of angry at yourself for not being able to overcome the worry
I love you little brain even though now you are feeling angry that you are angry
I love you little brain now that you are feeling kind of foolish about all this
I love you little brain even though obsessive thoughts are returning and scaring you
I love you little brain even though all this is making you a little scared and depressed

The point of all this is that one can love one's brain no matter what it is generating.

One can sort of thrown ones arms around it and literally give it love. In a the brain is sometimes like a little child in one's care, and one finds that one can comfort it. Instead of fighting what it is doing, embrace it.

This is something a psychiatrist taught me and it helps me a lot. Not sure it would help you are anyone else. We are all so different and what works for one of us might not work for another.

Wishing you and your brain the best of luck! Yao Wen