What I have missed - Anticipatory Anxiety

Is your day fraught with worry about something that may (or may not) happen? Stop imagining and anticipating the worst and learn the amazing rewards of living in the moment.
peony
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:08 am
Location: Canada

Re: What I have missed - Anticipatory Anxiety

Post by peony » Thu May 10, 2012 3:03 am

Hi Lynda,

Thanks for the encouragement. Nice to see that you are doing so well and have a good strategy for you church activities.

I had a poor meeting with our workman for the house because of all the anticipatory worry over my renos. I know I am really tense about it and should have calmed myself down before the meeting. As it turned out the contractor has some issues too and so we were both too excited wanting to have our say. My husband witnessed it all. I think I was also irritated with contractor for several things, so later I had to review the anger (irritation) chapter and negative thoughts session. I had a lot of negative thoughts at the meeting, partly because of the anticipatory thing. Yes, it's true you have get yourself in a calm positive state of mind and have a plan to deal with extra stress of potentially stressful meetings.

Now I just have to anticipate: Everything will go smoothly. The contractor will do a beautiful job, I will make the right decisions on colours and patterns. The reno will be done before my company arrives. I will be happy with the contractor. I will be assertive with the contractor. I will be delighted with the results. The cost will be reasonable.

The walking group positive anticipation: I will find some people who are friendly and nice. I might find some new friends. I will be able to get more excercise (I now walk daily already, averaging around 50 min per day). I will lose weight. I will enjoy going on the hikes and walks.

Thanks for listening.

LyndaLu
Posts: 794
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:43 pm

Re: What I have missed - Anticipatory Anxiety

Post by LyndaLu » Sat May 12, 2012 6:21 pm

Hi Peony:

Your positive self talk is fantastic. I am learning a lot just from reading your post !

I am going to try to move on to Session Nine soon ?

Stay in touch and keep up the great work. :)

Lynda

peony
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:08 am
Location: Canada

Re: What I have missed - Anticipatory Anxiety

Post by peony » Mon May 14, 2012 1:09 am

Hi Lynda
I know I need to do more work on Anticipatory Anxiety, but I think I will go on to session 9 tomorrow. I have broken through a few things this week and I am more aware of how and when I avoid. I use computor to avoid facing things I need to do, so I deleted my favourite game a couple of days ago. I can still work on positive expectations. Cant wait till I'm perfect to go to the next lesson otherwise I'd never move on (perfectionism)!!

Are you going to session 9? Did you get to church today? I would call your church activities a break through.

I bought plants for my big planter did it up today. Also bought some plants for my beds. Worked on the paint colour for kitchen, getting close to the right colour. 3 wrong ones so far, but one is close.

I continue to wish you success in all your attempts. I read that doing ANYTHING will be positive for our emotions and self esteem. Cheers.

LyndaLu
Posts: 794
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:43 pm

Re: What I have missed - Anticipatory Anxiety

Post by LyndaLu » Mon May 14, 2012 4:32 pm

Hello Peony:

I am going to review Session 8 today and then move on to Session 9. I have been spending two weeks on each
Session. I am working on the program for the second time now. I first worked on it in 2010/2011.
I did not really put a lot of effort into it the first time around. I am hoping that this
second time around will be more successful for me. I really need to learn as many skills as I can right now
because I am weaning myself off of my psychiatric medications and I will need those skills to help me cope without
the medications. I will see what happens in about 3-6 months from now when my medications are gone and I am
done working on the program. Wish me luck !

I am so glad to hear about your success with your gardening and painting. Now, I live in an apartment and I have for
all of my adult life, so I don't garden or paint. But, my sister who lives in Idaho loves to paint the inside and outside
of her house and is always working on SOME home improvement project in the home or in the yard. She loves to
garden and has plants in the yard and in pots. My brother-in-law is in charge of the lawn part. The weather is great
in Idaho right now so my sister will spend 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon gardening and weeding. The activity keeps
her joints healthy ( she has RA ) and she likes being outside enjoying her yard and the weather. I have no house so
I need to have other activities to keep me busy.

I did go to church again this past Sunday and it went well. I went to the church service and I went to bible class.
Only two people were there at the bible class from "my" group this Sunday, so we did not go out to eat brunch.
I enjoyed the service and the minister shook my hand and greeted me. The folks from the bible class have been
very nice to me and I am going to try my hardest to remember everyones names ! I don't really "know" anyone yet,
but I am sure that down the road they will know more about me and I will know more about them. Either way, the
day was a success because I got out of my lonely, little apartment and got out to be around people.

I should be writing on the Session Nine section soon.
See you there.
Lynda Lu :)

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