Workbook: A Dialogue with Anxiety
A 7-day workbook: daily tasks, an unconventional look at anxiety and simple techniques that really work.
Be honest and write it as it is. This workbook is your territory, where even anxiety has to show its passport.
Day 1
A map of your anxiety
Describe your anxieties as if they were cities or metro stations. Each “city” has its own name, size and noise level. Which anxiety is the biggest, and which is just a temporary stop?
Where do you spend the most time? Where don't you want to go back?
Day 2
A dialogue with anxiety: “What do you want to tell me?”
Try talking to your anxiety as if it were a person. What would you ask it? What would it answer? Write down this dialogue — with sarcasm, humour or complete seriousness.
What was unexpected in its “answers”?
Day 3
Anxiety, my personal guard
Recall at least three times when anxiety really helped you (even indirectly). What good can it do? Does anxiety have “healthy functions”?
What happens if you give anxiety the role of a guard rather than a dictator?
Day 4
An honest anxiety diary
Start a list: “Today I was anxious about…”. Write down everything that comes to mind without filtering. Look at the list in the evening: how many items turned out to be nonsense? How many were really important?
What could you let go of right now?
Day 5
My anti-anxiety arsenal
Gather the ways of coping with anxiety that work for you (music, sport, humour, rituals and so on). Come up with a new method or technique you haven't tried yet and test it today.
What worked best? What isn't you at all?
Day 6
Trust on a limited budget
Imagine your anxiety gets your trust for only 20 minutes a day. What would you do with the remaining 23 hours and 40 minutes?
How would your life change if anxiety were only a guest and not the master of the house?
Day 7
Anxiety is not me
Draw (in your mind or on paper) an image of your anxiety: what does it look like, sound like, what is it wearing? Now describe how you are different from your anxiety. Where does anxiety end — and where do you begin?
What will you take away from this task?
Final reflection
Answer 3 questions:
What new things have you understood about your anxiety in 7 days?
What has become simpler or easier?
Which techniques really worked?
What new things have you understood about your anxiety in 7 days?
What has become simpler or easier?
Which techniques really worked?