I want to share something that completely changed how I deal with.
.
.
Anxiety.
And it's called Worry Time.
When I was younger,
I went to a few CBT sessions.
Cognitive behaviour therapy.
The therapist gave us all an exercise to try at home.
My first reaction was But this sounds really strange.
Uh.
.
.
Maybe even counterproductive.
It made no sense to me.
As someone who I had a very anxious mind in my teenage years.
And it was scary and counterproductive sounding because.
.
.
The idea of worry time isn't to stop worrying.
It's the complete opposite.
And here's how it works.
You set aside some time.
For me,
It was 20 minutes a day.
And you lie down.
Or you sit.
And you just worry.
On purpose,
With purpose.
With intention,
The intention is.
I'm going to lie here and do nothing but worry.
So you let.
Every water.
Every scary scenario,
Everything you're afraid might happen.
Um,
Everything you can't stop replaying over and over in your head.
And there's no.
.
.
Reassuring yourself,
There's no silver linings,
There's no trying to solve things.
You just let it all come out.
Until the time is up.
And this It was transformative for me because.
.
.
What I was doing before.
Well,
I avoided worrying at all cost.
I distract myself.
Push it down.
Um.
.
.
I drank a bit too much,
If I'm being honest.
Looking back,
That was the real problem.
It wasn't.
.
.
That the thoughts themselves had power over me.
It was my fear.
My real fear of feeling them.
Let's be honest,
It is uncomfortable.
And so for the first time I did this.
I think I did it the very same day,
Actually,
That the therapist gave it to us.
I just lay down and I brace myself,
You know,
Like before a car crash,
That's how I felt.
And I expected it to be awful.
But.
.
.
I got really bored.
During it.
Became genuinely fed up and.
.
.
I ran,
I honestly ran out of things to worry about before the 20 minutes.
Or even finished.
And that taught me something.
Told me that these thoughts that felt so heavy.
So urgent.
They weren't dangerous.
They're just thoughts,
Projections.
Just passing through.
And once I seen that for myself.
Not as an idea,
But as something I actually experienced.
The grip loosened and It wasn't overnight.
Don't get me wrong.
It was transformative in that very first session,
But it was a process.
But worrying stopped becoming something that I feared.
It became something.
I could choose to do,
Which sounds so crazy.
I do just want to say,
I'm not sharing this to.
.
.
Get rid of your worries.
That's not the point.
I'd be lying if I said it was.
I'm showing you this as a way to look at your own mind.
Because all of our minds are unique.
They all work in their own way.
Idiosyncratic ways.
And it's to see what's actually there.
In your mind instead of running from it.
And what you find is yours to discover.
I'm also not a therapist,
I have to say this.
Um,
So this isn't professional advice,
It's something I was taught.
I'm sharing what it did for me.
It was.
.
.
You know,
Incredible.
And it takes It does take a bit of courage the first few times.
The first time,
Actually.
It didn't take much courage the second time.
Because you essentially.
.
.
Walking towards something you've spent a long time avoiding.
Or walking away from.
You might find like I did.
At the moment you stop avoiding it.
It starts to lose its grip.
It starts to lose its power.
So give it a go.
Set aside a little bit of time.
And worry with intent,
With purpose.
And see what happens.
