Loud noises scare my dog.
And when she’s scared, she’ll press into me insistently until she’s cradled and reassured that all is okay.
Leave her un-craddled and it’ll only get progressively worse. Don’t cradle her enough and she’ll persist and press into you until it is enough.
Telling her to stop being scared or pushing her away only exacerbates it.
However, give her a bone with some peanut butter on it? Or take her for a walk that’s filled with stimulating scents and smells? And she’ll forget what she was even scared about because she’s too preoccupied on the new experience / thought process.
…Assuming, of course, that it’s not a persistent loud noise or one that really shook her.
The takeaway here is an important one. Tell your mind or the mind of another to stop thinking or doing a thing—and it can’t help but continue thinking or doing the thing. Give the mind something else to focus on, however—something that’s captivating enough to consume a majority of its available mental resources—and you can’t help but stop thinking about / doing the other thing.
The next time you find yourself having negative self-talk, trouble with self-control, trying to help somebody who’s stuck thinking cyclically about something they no longer want to, etc—use this strategy of going to get them (or you) to stop.