Your life outside of anxiety
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LearningTranscript
00:00Life has good stuff and it has bad stuff.
00:04And when we're really struggling with anxiety,
00:07we can often only see the anxiety, everything feels bad.
00:11And we tend to forget that there was a time
00:14when we didn't feel this bad and things were more manageable
00:17and that therefore suggests that there will be a time in the future
00:23when again things aren't as bad and things feel much more manageable,
00:26good, life is enjoyable.
00:29So it's really important to remember
00:32when we are having a really hard time with anxiety,
00:35when we are in that really dark place,
00:37that anxiety is only one portion of our life.
00:40Even if it's trying to take over everything,
00:43it's just one slice and there are other things
00:45that are really important to us in life.
00:48So these might be things like loved ones,
00:51our friends and family, our work, our volunteering,
00:55hobbies, activities, doing art.
00:58These things are really useful because they anchor us through the dark times.
01:02Even when we're really struggling,
01:04if we can find the energy to just engage a little bit of this
01:08and give ourselves a little bit of a break
01:10and just remind ourselves that anxiety isn't our entire life,
01:14then that can be really useful.
01:16It can help us come through the dark times faster
01:20because we've kind of got something dragging us back to normality.
01:25So if you'd like some homework from this short video,
01:28here's what I want you to do.
01:30I want you to write down some things you like about yourself,
01:34some strengths or things that you're really good at,
01:38things that you like to do,
01:40and things that are important to you.
01:42So what do you like about yourself and what's good about you?
01:46What are you good at?
01:48What things do you like to do?
01:50What things are really important to you
01:52that even when you're struggling, you keep going with?
01:55Having these kind of anchor points can really be useful
01:58because when you're recognizing,
02:00actually, I'm really struggling here,
02:02you'll have this kind of pre-made list of,
02:05okay, here are some things I enjoy doing, I'm good at,
02:08that are important to me that I can engage with
02:11to bring that sense of normality back
02:14so I can connect with the here and now,
02:16I can connect with the people around me
02:18and remind myself that anxiety isn't my entire life,
02:22and there was a time before this where I felt okay,
02:25and there will be a time again when I'm feeling okay too.