There’s a video about naming anxious thoughts instead of just reacting to them. The instructor said to write down what the thought actually is, not what it’s telling you.
I tried it on a night when my invoices were piling up and the inbox wouldn’t stop.
What I wrote down:
– not a fact
– just adrenaline
– can wait 10 minutes
That last line is the one that stuck. Now when something anxious shows up, I set a timer for 10 minutes before I respond to it.
I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks. Some nights nothing changes. Other nights I notice both cats are asleep on the moving boxes and I just sit there until the timer goes off.
It doesn’t make the anxious part go away. It just gives it somewhere to sit for 10 minutes instead of going straight into my hands.