'refrain from thinking' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe the act of deliberately not thinking about something, usually something negative. For example: "He told himself to refrain from thinking about the difficulties of the upcoming exam and to focus on studying instead."
Or should we refrain from thinking that we can always sort the world so neatly?
Levinas does not refrain from thinking the lapse of time, which is also the gnawing of remorse, and the symptom of the Other-in-the-same.
It's only fair to others that we do our best to refrain from thinking about the future.
The children and I went about our day and although I was more quiet than usual, I didn't yell and I tried my best to refrain from thinking about the book issue.
Try and refrain from thinking emotionally.
Although you know the clock is fast try to refrain from thinking of it as the "wrong time" think of it as the time that it is for you.
Molly held her breath and closed her eyes and with an effort — it was like squeezing something inside her head — she refrained from thinking something unpleasant about her brother.
Molly held her breath and closed her eyes and with an effort it was like squeezing something inside her head she refrained from thinking something unpleasant about her brother.
You can apply the same concept when designing your website by refraining from thinking of your page as a static site.
Alternatively, one woman described how she managed her fear of childbirth by simply refraining from thinking of the delivery.
As I wrote in The Stories We Tell Ourselves, "An intentional listener refrains from thinking about their own response while the other person is still speaking". When you're not thinking about yourself while your spouse is still speaking, that's true undivided attention.
