15 July 2022
Often when it comes to mental health, people don’t know where to start. Problems can seem insurmountable, ridiculously complex and overlapping, painfully enduring and stuck. Indeed, this is what brings many people to treatment.
So what can you do right now? At home? As you wait for an appointment with a doctor or therapist; or slowly build up the courage to even make one, or just aren’t sure if you ever will.
Experiment 101 – The power of action and reflection
1. Draw a map of the main issues you are aware of, or if you’re not a map person, write a list. Dot point it all.
Examples of problems:
– I feel sad, lonely, guilty, worried, scared…..
– I’m getting panic attacks, I’m too scared to leave home, I’m not eating normally
– I have thoughts or behaviours that really upset me
– I’m not very nice to myself
– I have no money, I might be homeless soon
– I hate my job
– I’m being abused (or think I might be)
– Relationship with XYZ
– Addiction to XYZ
– I don’t like XYZ
– I am grieving XYZ
2. Now have a guess at the biggest contributing problem right now and think of one small positive action to improve it.
If that feels too big, choose ANY OF THE PROBLEMS. All action is good action. There is no room for perfectionism and oodles and oddles of space and lavish castles and endless fields for mistakes (I love mistakes, because they present us with such opportunity to grow and learn). In any case, there are no mistakes here, just different routes!
Examples of action:
– I will call a friend daily for a week
– I will apply for 5 jobs
– I will walk past the AA meeting spot
– I will try to be more patient, graceful and loving towards myself
– I will journal
– I will tell someone about the abuse
There are lots of other actions which work powerfully with specific problems; but I can’t cover them all here. The point here is that every step counts, so COUNT every step.
3. REVIEW every week:
– What did I learn from this experiment?
– Should I continue with this experiment for another week? Tweak it? Or make a new experiment?
It’s amazing what you can learn and gain from this simple, focused experiment.
TIP
Remember, you can give yourself permission to only focus on this one chosen issue and experiment – how freeing! (but only if you want to). You don’t have to target that whole list right now.
You might have hit the nail on the head, got the bullseye and Bobs ya uncle the circuit of pain disintegrates. Or maybe you got a little improvement in a small section of your web. Alternatively, perhaps you couldn’t complete the experiment or it had no impact. All of these outcomes are fantastic because they have either lead to direct improvement, or indirect improvement by giving you new data about the problem and forcing you to look at the issue at an even deeper level, and to create a new experiment!
Reflect and Celebrate! Good Luck!
Until next time!
Justine.
Action anxiety Boundaries experiment Experiment101 Fear Good enough Growth Ditch Guilt Keep Going Mental health OCD Parenting Perfectionism Reflection Relapse Relationships Resilience Responsibility Saying no self-esteem Shame Small steps
Leave a Reply