Re: Trip Down a Rabbit Hole/ 'Notice Five Things'

September 29, 2010

Sorry for the bother, but where can I find the " Notice Five Things " exercise? I

can't seem to recall that one--been so many neat recommendations of recent!

Thanks for sharing what helped you.

Thanks,

Terry

>

> Two nights ago I started a trip down my anxiety rabbit hole over a very minor

traffic incident. My thinking self decided I should stop driving and I bought

it! It's my first really fun trip down the hole in quite sometime - months. I

can usually catch myself before I go too far but not this time. I had a

sleepless night and felt very helpless that I was not able to catch this one. I

had scheduled an important driving trip to the mountains yesterday and it would

have been very easy to skip it but I accepted (but didn't like) the anxiety funk

and departed (committed action) with the sinking feeling that I would not get

out of this one for several days (thinking self trying to be in charge). Finally

I composed myself enough to refer to my ACT toolkit. I choose the " notice five

things tool. " After going through that exercise several times (awareness of the

present) I began to feel the funk retreating. I went ahead with my trip and had

a wonderful day in the mountains working on a valued project. By 10am I was out

of the rabbit hole and I said to myself " Wow, I wonder where that came from? " I

can feel that my body is full of adrenalin so I will drink lots of water and

sweat it out.

>

> I think I've become a bit over confident that my ACT knowledge will carry me

through the rough spots. This experience was a wake-up call that I need to

PRACTICE myself, as well as admonish others to PRACTICE. In this case I think I

let my AWARENESS OF THE PRESENT skills get rusty so I will resume my formal OPEN

FOCUS BRAIN exercises.

>

> Bill

>

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