Anxiety, 10

Fight. Manage anxiety by wrestling with acceptance. You can fight with your anxiety, distracting you from the life you are hoping to be present for. Or you can make room for anxiety, accepting that it might be one part of you. Movement toward acceptance releases the pressure of control and allows you to adjust your attention to what matters to you. Journal Prompt: When I fight with anxiety, I miss...

Anxiety, 9

Tolerance Manage anxiety by increasing your tolerance for what is uncomfortable. When you cannot tolerate disappointing other people, you participate in a lot you are not interested in and blow past your boundaries. Thus stress and anxiety. Manage anxiety by increasing your capacity to tolerate what is uncomfortable without adjusting your boundaries. Build the muscle of: Tolerating the disappointment of others Tolerating the feeling of false guilt Tolerating other people's anxiety Journal Prompt: What do I need to tolerate to better manage my anxiety?

Rethinking

Too close to see her own hypocrisy, she didn’t realize she was teaching the very action she was condemning.

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 10

Powerless. Depression can feel like you took-the-wrong-exit helpless. Overwhelmed and stuck, you fold inward and resolve that life will always be this way. Journal Prompts: I feel powerless when...

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 9

Lonely. Blocked behind a brick wall, depression can blind you. It can feel like you are not participating in life. Like you are looking through an omitted brick and seeing life happen. Observing, not participating. Isolated. Withdrawn. Journal Prompts: The loneliness of depression is...

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 8

Shame. In the corner, clammy, recoiled, and done trying, depression feels like there is something broken inside that needs to be hidden. Shame is exhausting. Shame is always in fear of exposure. Shame is pressure. Shame keeps you trapped. Journal Prompts: I feel shame…

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 7

Anxious. Depression can feel like the aftermath of a lost fight of climbing anxiety. Dread throbbing its way through your veins, only the shell of your stomach left, clenched. Journal Prompts: The anxiety of depression feels like...

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 6

Numb. Disconnected. Distant. Unresponsive. Glacial. Depression carries a desire to stay far enough away to not feel.

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 5

Abandonment. Guard down, exposed, left to the abyss of the cold floor and your negative thoughts. Depression feels a lot like abandonment. Journal Prompts: I feel abandoned by...

Feeling Your Way Through Depression, 4

Active. Depression can appear withdrawn and apathetic, far from active. But in reality, depression contains a lot of energy beneath the surface, energy that has been hurt and disappointed. Journal Prompts: Depressive energy inside me is like...