Keep going
Mind
Breathe. This moment is enough to handle.
Deeper insight
Overwhelm comes from carrying tomorrow, next week and last year all at once. Bringing your attention back to this moment (the breath, your feet on the floor) shrinks the load to something you can actually hold. You only ever have to deal with right now.
Try this Notice five things you can see, four you can feel and three you can hear.
Mind
You are not your thoughts. You are the one who notices them.
Deeper insight
Your mind produces thousands of thoughts a day, and many are old habits rather than truths. When you notice a thought (“I always mess things up”), you create a tiny gap between you and it. In that gap you get to choose whether to believe it, question it or let it pass.
Try this When a harsh thought shows up, add “I’m having the thought that…” in front of it.
Mind
A thought is not a fact. Pause before you believe it.
Deeper insight
Anxiety and low mood are convincing storytellers. They present guesses as certainties: they’re angry with me, I’ll fail, nothing will change. Pausing to check the evidence doesn’t make the feeling disappear, but it stops a passing thought from steering your whole day.
Try this Ask yourself: “What’s the evidence for this thought, and what’s the evidence against it?”
Mind
Feelings are visitors. Let them come, and let them go.
Deeper insight
Feelings are signals, not instructions, and they’re not permanent. When we fight them or numb them, they tend to stick around. When we let ourselves feel them, they usually rise and pass. You can feel something fully without letting it decide what you do.
Try this Name the feeling out loud (“this is anger”) and notice where you feel it in your body.
