The brain cannot think of nothing. This "apparatus" is designed in such a way that it endlessly spins different thoughts in the head and makes some conclusions.
At some point, obvious biases towards certain topics and emotions begin to occur, and we begin to feel uneasy and anxious.
Elena Katsyuba, a psychologist and psychosomatologist, spoke about a technique that helps determine the level of anxiety and take appropriate measures.
If nothing extraordinary or extreme is happening in our lives at any given moment (nobody is dying, the house is not burning, the earth is not shaking), then, as a rule, the same thoughts concerning several specific topics are spinning in our heads every day.
To understand which of these topics triggers us and how far the situation has gone, you can use a simple but effective technique.
We sit down at the table, mentally remove our heads from our shoulders and shake out all the thoughts that have been bothering us over the past week onto the table.
Then we start to organize them by topic. For example, this thought is about my children's performance at school, this one is about a project at work, this one is about my relationship with my husband, this one is about my health, which is sending alarming signals. You will have 3-5 main topics.
Next, we take each topic, examine it from all sides and determine what share of it is occupied by positive emotions, what share is occupied by negative emotions, and what share is of an unemotional nature - for example, related to planning issues.
For example, the topic of children's academic performance at school. 30% are positive thoughts related to the fact that the child, compared to the previous quarter, has improved in several subjects. 50% are negative thoughts.
They revolve around the fact that the child is reluctant to study, has no motivation and does homework under duress. The remaining 20% are technical issues: bring a certificate to the school for the teacher, enroll in a club, etc.
In this way, we break down into its component parts each topic that we mull over in our heads throughout the week.
The next step is to determine which of these topics takes up most of our attention during the day. We take the day as 100% and intuitively allocate shares for each topic.
It may turn out that the topic of a child's academic performance, for example, takes up only 5% of our time. And 70% is thinking about a difficult project at work that is due this month.
Let's sum it up and see which topics we've gone into emotional "minus" on. If on all or most, it means the level of anxiety is off the charts and it's time to start working on overcoming the anxious state.
