8 Key Questions to Help Ease Your Anxiety or Depression

Key Questions to Ask Yourself to Help Ease Your Anxiety or Depression:

1. Do you tend to lean more toward anxious or depressed thoughts or feelings? Keep in mind that you can have a combination of both or start out with anxious thoughts that eventually lead to more depressive ones or vice versa.
2. What are your specific thoughts? Note them. For example, “I won’t have a good time,” “Things never work out for me,” or “I have so much to be appreciative of; what’s wrong with me that I can’t be content.”
3. What are your feelings or emotions based on those thoughts? For example, sad, overwhelmed, unmotivated, or discouraged.
4. What is leading or tends to lead your thoughts and feelings? For example, some individuals tend to gravitate toward anger/rage, cutting off/avoidance, or worry/fear
5. What may be compelling the thoughts and feelings? Answering this will help you to uncover the core feelings that are possibly being masked by your compensatory strategies and defenses. Ask yourself, for example, “What’s currently making me feel fearful or worried?” “What do I currently experience as unfair or as an injustice?” or “What’s making me feel so overwhelmed or out of control?”
6. How do you typically react and behave when you are confronted with those thoughts and feelings? Take an inventory of your prior responses and assess how they worked for you in the past. Further, consider whether it’s in line with your values, being your best self, and living the life you want.
7. How self-compassionate are you? This often doesn’t come naturally, and we aren’t ordinarily taught how to implement or infuse it. Proactively, intentionally, and mindfully connect with your self-compassion.
8. How will you choose to act now? Strongly reconsider your impulses and inclinations in the moment. Be curious, open, and willing and take action to branch out into the unfamiliar, the places that may scare and discourage you, and to make mistakes and start over again. These are integral skills that enhance your growth and resilience.

This process requires pausing, contemplation, and recalibrating your actions. The key is to acknowledge and be accepting as to where your mind defaults to, notice it, get to the underlining thoughts and feelings, integrate self-compassion, and act in accordance with your values and best self.

Read the complete article available at Psychology Today!

Reflection:

What are your thoughts on these questions?

#Anxiety #Depression #Coping #Self-reflection