Not having a good day

[firecat]

When I get stressed in certain ways then I start getting a zillion messages per minute running through my head, all of which have the words "YOU SHOULD" in them.

If this happens to you too, how do you turn it off?


(There's no emergency. I just want to fix a bunch of things that I am not in a position to fix, although I might be able to influence them.)

Comments

[eagle]

Similar to what a few other people have said, I write down all the things that I think I should be doing, look over the list, pick one of those items that I can do, and firmly tell myself that I can only do one thing at the same time so everything else has to wait. The options are doing one thing or doing nothing; doing two things simultaneously doesn't work.

It helps to remind myself that getting anything done is better than having my head aswirl with all the things I should be doing. Usually the best way to get multiple things done is to get one thing done. The focusing effect of doing one thing often gets me into a mental state where I can do the next thing.

[firecat]

Yeah, and in the case where a lot of the "shoulds" are vague things that one can't do (like fix someone else's pain), doing something that one can do probably helps refocus the mind.