anxiety reflection journal

I made an anxiety worksheet based on the questions that I ask myself when I’m feeling anxious, and that I often find clients say are helpful as well!

three things you are grateful for

As anxiety and depression can make us focus more on the negative, it can be helpful to start with some positivity by recognising three things you are grateful for. They don’t have to be big things, in fact the smaller the better. For example I could be grateful for my comfy bed, or how excited my cat gets to see me on a morning.

what is my mood today?

Part of managing our emotions involves first recognising and acknowledging what it is we are feeling.

what is worrying you today

Just recognising what we are worrying about and writing it down can help us to get it out of our head.

is it a hypothetical worry?

Hypothetical worries are often those that start with “what if..” and often are around the future and things that might ever happen. So we can ask ourselves, is this something I can so something about right now? If yes, do it! Or make a plan to do it. If it isn’t anything you have control over, recognise that it is worrying, but keeping thinking about it isn’t going to stop it happening and is just going to make you feel worse. So do what you can to let it go and distract yourself with something you enjoy instead.

worst and best case scenario

Another way to tackle our worries is to think of the worst and best case scenario. As our brains are really good at focusing on the worst case, and we kind of ignore the possibility of the best case. I like to even get silly with it as that helps me realise how I am overestimating the worst case. I can easily imagine the worst case of the bus crashing and a horrible accident, but there is also a chance the best case happens and I meet Harry Styles!

Then finish up with writing what you think is the most likely to happen. Okay so maybe I don’t get to meet Harry on the bus, but it also most likely isn’t going to crash either and I get to my destination safe.