Reflection: How To
Arrive At Acceptance
And Move An From
There
Managing and overcoming anxiety
takes work, a lot of work through
self-observation and introspection,
which is why this video is filled with
worksheets that help you ask the
right questions and as a result find
the right answers.
This process isn’t easy. But
we guarantee that the
rewards are long-lasting
and worthy.
We provide guidelines that help
you reflect and reassess your
situation, the reasons for it, and
ways to manage it too.
The first step to this process is to
monitor your body’s responses to
events that bring on your anxiety.
Once you are physically aware of
what your body is going through,
you can track your feelings and
observe their relationship with
each other.
Finally, we show you how to
become more aware of your
present state of mind. We show
you how to accept it and move on
from there.
Understanding Your Body Signals
Daisy is a bit taken aback when
her doctor diagnoses her with
anxiety.
What she discovers over a week
surprises her. She decides to take
control of it and with the guidance
of her doctor starts tuning in to find
a way out of her dilemma.
Worksheet 10 - Tracking Your Body’s Signals
Here is a list of common bodily symptoms
and signs of anxiety. Now, some of the
symptoms might be like that of an illness.
But if your symptoms are a result
of your anxiety, then you’re likely
to have an emotional thought
that led to it.
• Increased heart rate
• Difficulty in breathing
• Stomach discomfort
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Sweaty hands, palms, feet, forehead
• Light-headedness
• Tightening of chest
• Feeling disoriented
• Feeling nauseous
• Feeling lonely and sad
At the end of each day,
review your notes. Take time
to think about what you feel.
Write your feelings.
Minding Your Moods
After you become more aware of your
body’s signals, you might be able to
connect them with your changing moods.
Track your moods every day
for a week. How do you feel
when you are happy?
Can you identify it as
you experience it?
What are your thoughts
at such a time?
Worksheet 11 - Mood Tracker
• Each day, circle all the feeling words
mentioned below that describe your
emotions.
Sadness Fear Shame Anger
Downhearted Frightened Guilty Hostile
Defeated Edgy Apologetic Violent
Forlorn Troubled Self-Conscious Resentful
Discouraged Reserved Shunned Annoyed
Dejected Alarmed Dishonored Irritable
• Think and describe your mood and
behavioral patterns at such times.
• Describe the situations that led to it. Your
thoughts when you were experiencing it.
• Simply observe and describe your
thoughts and reactions during the first
week. Try and yield a level of control over
any negative and unpleasant thoughts and
moods during the second week.
• How are you feeling? Where are you now?
Where do you want to be?
• Continue to balance your thoughts and
mood swings. Do you see any progress?
• Where are you now? Where do you want
to be?
Rehabilitating Your Thoughts
Now that you’ve spent a little time with your
mind and body, you might have a fair idea of
what they’re trying to tell you.
Finding Acceptance
Now, it’s time to move on to the phase of
acceptance. And to get there, you must
first unearth and remove any distorted
thought patterns that might be stopping
you from moving on.
What Are Distorted Thought Patterns?
Distorted thoughts are thoughts that are
disconnected and different from reality.
Here are some examples of distorted
thought patterns.
Expanding and shrinking: Your mind exaggerates
the unpleasantness of the task on hand and
underestimates your reluctance and/or
incapability of doing it.
For instance, you may think, “It’s impossible to
solve this problem. Nobody can do it. Truth is, a
few people in your team might have been able to
do it. You dismiss it as impossible and therefore
don’t try and seek assistance.
Filtering: Your mind filters out information and
feedback to its inconvenience. For instance, you
receive feedback on your performance. You have
three good scores and two poor ones. Your mind
can filter this either way. It can make you believe
that you were good in three and so the other two
don’t matter or it can make you ignore the three
and focus on how miserable you are.
Dismissing evidence: Your mind discards evidence
that may challenge its negative narrative. For
instance, you are preparing for an exam and are
worried that the lessons you skipped might end up
in the paper. And so, your mind dismisses it by
believing it already knows that those lessons will
be ignored.
Generalizing: You look at a single, unpleasant
incidence and decide that that event represents a
general, unrelenting trend. For instance, you tell
your friends that they are never there for you and
are always late when they might have missed a
few events and are caring and punctual people.
Presumptuous: You assume that you know what
others are thinking without confirming it with
them. For instance, you take it for granted that the
other person might be ok with your choice of
decisions for them.
Emotional Reasoning: If you’re feeling something,
then that is the truth, the reality. For instance, if
you’re afraid of something, then it must be
dangerous for you. If you don’t like working on
your anxiety, then you believe that you cannot
overcome it and therefore must settle with it.
Unreliable forecasting: You assume a negative
thought will manifest into reality. You fear driving
and so you convince yourself that you’re likely to
meet with an accident if you drive.
Overcoming Any Distorted Thought
Patterns
Worksheet 12 - Distorted Thoughts Tracker
• Reflect on the above table. And when you
are open and ready, spend time to check if
you display any of them.
• Once you identify a pattern, mindfully
try and avoid this every time you
catch yourself falling into the trend.
• Tracking your thoughts and looking
for distortions in them helps put
things in better perspective, which in
turn starts improving your mood and
reduces anxiety.
Assessing Your Present and Preparing a
Plan for the Future
Now that you know your pitfalls and the
stuck points that are stopping you from
moving ahead, accept them, without guilt
or resentment (it makes the process of
letting go of them easier).
Assess your responsibility and determine
your next steps. Start by:
• Replacing any negative thoughts with
positive and constructive thoughts
• Change your perspective. Become more
aware- of yourself and your surroundings,
of the reality too.
• Stay honest and open to feedback and
change
• Distinguish the past from the present
• Take direct action against problematic
thoughts
Connect with Now
Ask yourself:
• Where are you now?
• Where do you want to be?
Worksheet 13 - Setting Goals
• Can you think of anything that you want
more than you fear? Or it can be facing
your fear itself.
• If you can’t think of anything right now,
don’t rush through.
• Keep going back to it to see if you have
something that aligns with your
purpose in life.
• Write them down when they hit you
(and they will).
Great! Now you have your goals in
front of you. What can stop you
from achieving them?
Nothing! The next few chapters
will show you how.
