Hello my sweet Journalers! Today has been one of those days where I’ve taken out my journal at least 3 times, and I felt the need to share. Sometimes all you need to do is write it out. Journaling really helped me gain some clarity today. In my experience, when I am going through a period of overwhelm or anxiousness, I find my anxiety attaches to one thing and then the next- even if those specific subjects aren't directly related to what I’m feeling anxious about. To give an example, I have a long trip coming up next week, and my travel anxiety is sometimes huge. To name a few things my anxiety has decided to cling to this week: fear of summer ending, worrying about jobs, discomfort surrounding friendships. On the surface, I thought I was simply anxious about each and every one of these things. But, as I got out my journal, and sat with the heaviness of my own thoughts, the clouds separated and some beacons of clarity peaked through. I am feeling out of control and my anxious thoughts had me believing the worst case scenarios about everything surrounding my upcoming trip. I sat with this realization, wondering how I would go about talking myself off this metaphorical ledge. Here’s a tactic that came to mind: challenge your thoughts.
Those of you in therapy may have heard of this magical technique. But if you haven’t, pay close attention to the next few lines, because I’m about to spill some serious anxiety-TEA. When our anxious, ego brains are feeling stressed or out of control, they often try to make up scenarios in our heads to prepare us for the worst- in hopes that we will feel somewhat in control. If we have an idea in mind of the absolute worst case scenario, then we will be much better prepared for our inevitable, horrible fate, right? WRONG ego-brain, try again! This does the opposite, actually. Other than the obvious truth that none of these thoughts are even remotely helpful, we are actually sabotaging our current, happy moments of our present. We are stressing about and cooking up these wild ideas and they are oftentimes not based on any truth or the ‘big picture’ of the situation! They get us all riled up and stressed, accomplishing quite the opposite of what miss ego brain was going for. Have you witnessed your own brain do this in some form or another? I know I’m not the only one- I can’t be! But, you may be wondering… what are we supposed to do about these thoughts? We’re not having these irrational scenarios play out on purpose, that would be ridiculous! Of course you aren’t, and neither am I. So, to combat some of these worries, I have come up with a short list of Journal Prompts that we can use to ‘challenge’ these controlling, out-of-control thoughts. *Please take out your journals now :)* First things first, choose one of the negative/anxious thoughts that have been entering your mind lately. Choose just one (for now). Next, write down this thought before answering the following questions:
Now that you have answered these questions, read over your answers. As you read over your answers, I’m almost certain that you will notice these thoughts are not accurately representing your current reality. You may even notice that your original thought actually seems unlikely or ‘out of left field’. This is good! You are calling out your ego, worried subconscious. Your ego is just trying to protect you from imminent hurt and heartbreak, but sometimes our ego brain doesn’t think in the most sensical ways. We need to remind our conscious brains that we don’t need to bet against ourselves all the time… it's quite exhausting. How could we always get it SO wrong, in every situation we are picturing? That doesn't seem very likely! It's time to change the narrative. Imagine if everything went right instead. How great would that feel? Let your mind and soul become excited for how the future could unfold, rather than feeling absolutely terrified. It’s okay to let yourself feel happy or hopeful; we don’t have to be preparing ourselves for the worst-case scenario! If at some point we face disappointment, it won’t matter how much we prepared for it or not- we will still be disappointed, and that is okay too. Our emotions ebb and flow- it’s all part of the experience and there’s no hiding from it no matter how hard our ego brains try. We will never escape pain from constantly preparing ourselves for disappointment. Read that again. Why ruin the moment? Enjoy the now. Be grateful for the present, and what has gone right instead of what might go wrong. If you found journaling helpful for these anxious thoughts, try them again with another thought that you’re tired of giving energy to! You can use these journal prompts time and again, whenever needed. Remember to be gentle with yourself. We are allowed to make mistakes. We are allowed to feel discouraged or unsure about our futures. But, as we continue to send love and compassion inwards, we will start to believe in ourselves again and our positive outlooks will begin to surface. I’m so glad you joined me for today’s journaling session and I hope it brought you some peace. Thank you for being here! Your Journality is waiting…
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AuthorGrateful to share my love for journaling with the world and the Journality community. |