Day 3326: A lot of anxiety

I see a lot of anxiety in the people I encounter, these days, and also in myself.

The last two nights I had a lot of anxiety dreams — about my patients, my son, and a presentation I’m giving about groups next week.

I probably don’t need to be anxious about anything, but it’s difficult to tell our minds to stop being anxious or to stop worrying about the future. Just yesterday, I talked to a patient about the technique of scheduling worry.

Scheduling worry works like this: (1) You set aside a time for worry (e.g., Tuesday at 5:30 PM), (2) Put “worry” in your schedule, (3) when worry comes up, you tell yourself, “Nope! I’ll worry later at [the scheduled time], and (4) when the scheduled time comes, worry as hard as you can.

When there’s a lot of anxiety, it helps to contain it. And I hope it helps to know you’re not alone.

The Daily Bitch has a lot of anxiety today.

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Do you see a lot of anxiety in my other images for today?

A lot of people have a lot of anxiety about the Internet.

I don’t have a lot of anxiety about finding something relevant and helpful when I search YouTube for “a lot of anxiety.”

Do you ever have a lot of anxiety? If so, what helps to reduce it, even just a little?

I may have a lot of anxiety sometimes, but I also have a lot of gratitude for those who help me lower my anxiety every day with this blog, including you!

Day 3314: Inspirational Stories

Last night, I asked this question on Twitter:

Based on people’s responses to my question about inspirational stories, I’ve ordered the books I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven, Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller, and Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trial of American Democracy, by Jamie Raskin. I’m looking forward to reading those inspirational and, I’m sure, difficult stories.

Do you see any inspirational stories in my other images for today?

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On National Chocolate Cake Day, here‘s what I find when I search YouTube for “Inspirational Stories.”

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I’m sure I will be inspired by any comments or stories you share, below.

Thanks to all who inspire me to blog every day, including YOU.

Day 3299: Enough

I hear many people saying, in my therapy groups and elsewhere, “Enough is enough!”

I can’t get enough clarification, so here’s a definition of “enough.”

As I look at that definition of “enough,” it occurs to me that aren’t enough people who are old enough to vote who are actually voting in U.S. elections.

Here and now, as I’m staring at the word “enough,” it’s starting to look really weird to me, but enough about that.

Yesterday, when I had enough, I asked this question on Twitter …

… which led to this exchange:

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Am I including enough images in today’s post? Note that it wasn’t warm enough for me to venture outside, so these are all indoor shots.

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It looks like the Daily Bitch has had enough.

Enough of you may have guessed what song I’m going to share today.

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I can’t get enough of your comments, so please consider leaving one today.

Enough thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU!

Day 3130: Predicting the future

I haven’t looked at the news yet, but I’m predicting that much of it involves people predicting the future.

We humans specialize in predicting the future, especially when the present is uncomfortable and confusing.

When I’m predicting the future, I’m usually catastrophizing — assuming the worst case scenario. I do that to prepare myself, but that prevents me from being in the moment — which actually helps me to prepare better for what’s coming.

Two of my tweets yesterday were about predicting the future.

I was predicting that those tweets would be much more popular than they were. I couldn’t predict that this tweet would be MUCH more popular:

As always, I’m terrible at predicting the future. However, I predict that I’ll keep trying to do it.

Certain things are easy to predict, like my sharing images every day in this blog.

I wouldn’t have predicted that the Daily Bitch would be so non-bitchy today! Maybe that’s because it’s “National Love is Kind” Day.

I’m predicting that I’ll find something interesting on YouTube if I search for “predicting the future.”

Here’s a song from Donald Fagen about predicting the future:

I’m predicting that some of you will comment on this blog and some of you won’t.

If you predicted that I would end this post with gratitude, you are correct!