Tag: OCD Recovery

OCD, Holidays & Lack of Routine

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Woman relaxing on beach with text: WORK DEADLINE (again!), Check emails (ignore them), What did Sarah Sinarah say (milk, bread, kale?), Did I lock the door?, Buy groceries, charged?, Save for mortgage (Is my phone charged?), Climate change?, Social media notifications!, What did Sarah is uncertain, I should be relaxing, I should be relaxing!, and How to Relax.

Do you look forward to your holidays?  I think most people must but I for one struggle, it’s not that I don’t like spending time with my family, I really do, but there’s an element of having to relinquish control, particularly when you go away with other people and for someone who likes to be in control, it can be tricky.

Having a sense of control and predictableness over my day-to-day environment helps me feel calmer and more regulated and when this is the case my OCD tends to be quieter.  Remove some of those safety barriers and my nervous system is less happy and so OCD tends to be a bit stickier.  It’s a bit like doing one big compulsion, pushing myself out of my comfort zone for a whole week and even though there will be moments of joy, I know I’ll feel less regulated than normal.

Just by writing those proceeding two paragraphs down, I can see how much of a comfort zone I have created for myself and so I do need to push outside of it more.  This week I go away and I have been ignoring the fact for the last few weeks, I haven’t started packing and I am avoiding everything surrounding it.

So, I need to stop writing this post, get my head in gear and go pack.  Take a deep breath and try and make the most of what really should be a fun and exciting experience with my family.

Let me know how you feel about holidays, does anyone else struggle with the lack of routine?     

Right, I’m off to pack, wish me luck!  I’ll report back in a weeks’ time.

In the meantime,
Stay Strong xxx

Perception vs Reality in Anxiety and OCD

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Hiker with backpack and trekking pole between sunny and moonlit mountain landscapes

Have you ever heard the phrase,

‘You don’t see reality as it is, you see it as you are’? 

This is why two people can have the exact same experience BUT have two completely different reactions to it.

It’s something worth remembering, especially when you have OCD or anxiety because the brain will be putting a filter on everything relating to your themes coming through, making them feel more intense, urgent and scary than they are. 

When my physical compulsions were really bad many years ago, one of the lies my brain told me was that I had to do everything 4 times or something bad would happen to someone in my family. 
Eventually it got so bad it was taking over my whole life, something had to be done.  At this time one of the observations I made was that no one else was doing these compulsions and they seemed OK.  Why was my brain telling me different?    

Breaking the loop

The way you break out of these loops and false realities is to become the observer of your thoughts.  This is an idea from ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) called defusion. 

Defusion means stepping back from your thoughts. Instead of treating thoughts as absolute facts or commands, you learn to see them as simple words or mental events. This helps stop overthinking and reduces emotional pain but it takes practice and it can be tricky as when we are tiggered, we are quickly pulled into fight or flight.  When in this state rational thinking and the ability to make sensible judgements and defuse from thoughts becomes tricky.   

I’ve talked previously about my fears around swimming – deep routed fears that have been there since I was about 8.  I’ve been working on these more recently and I am slowly making progress, but it takes a lot of time to rewire these patterns. 
One thing I have observed for a while now is that not everyone hates swimming, in fact some people enjoy it and so the problem isn’t swimming, swimming is neither good nor bad, it’s my perception of it that’s wrong. 
My brain has decided swimming is bad, based on an experience I had when I was 8 and so that’s it for life now? Wow!

Another example from when I was younger: I used to feel lightheaded when I stood for long periods of time on hard floors and I told myself this was because I have blood pressure that’s on the low side.  In fact, that’s what I used to tell everyone. 
But having had a bought of bad anxiety since then, I now know that feeling lightheaded has nothing to do with hard floors or blood pressure and everything to do with me telling myself these things and my brain creating the conditions to make it so.  Yes, your brain can make you feel dizzy, light-headed, tired and a whole cascade of other effects which are self-created, sorry.  

Your compulsions are similar; your brain tells you to do them or else… but in reality this is a lie your brain is telling you because of a perceived reality/false belief which I’m guessing doesn’t even exist.

Can you defuse yourself from your OCD thoughs long enough to see them for what they are? 

As Always,
Stay Strong xxx   

OCD, Perfectionism & The Monkey Mind

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Security guard thinking about venue safety checks and guest list

I’ve never thought of myself as a perfectionist in the past, I’m not the tidiest person or the smartest and I think I’ve always had an image in my head of a perfectionist as a highly put together, successful person.  Of course this may still be right, highly successful people may struggle with the idea of failing but my perfectionism is a little more insidious than that. 

I spend quite a lot of time in my sympathetic nervous system, more commonly known as fight or flight and one trait of this is that you think in extremes, all or nothing, black and white.  This sort of thinking allows very little room for error or mistakes, especially when combined with your OCD themes, which are of course based around the things you care about the most and can’t tolerate uncertainty or doubt around.

AS a result when you combine these two  traits you create a situation where anything expect 100% certainty – perfectionism – is acceptable.

Perfect is impossible

When we’re triggered – for whatever reason – we fall into fight or flight, losing our ability to see nuance.  This takes away our permission to be human because we know being perfect is impossible for anyone, we then beat ourselves up and try to ‘fix’ the perceived issue. 

We can think of this way of thinking as our monkey mind, the more primitive part of our brain which keeps us alive and safe, in fact this is ALL it cares about. Staying alive. 
In the past this would of included not being kicked out of our tribe, so not making mistakes which may cause this would have been important.  ‘What would others think of me if they could see my thoughts and know I wasn’t perfect?’.  Sound familiar?

Why does the monkey mind overestimate threats?

The monkey mind has issues with calculating threats correctly. Estimating odds and making risk assessments are done elsewhere in the brain and so it can only guess.  Why wouldn’t it err on the side of safety?  Why would it take the risk?  The monkey mind CANNOT be reasoned with, comforted or distracted from its mission. The only way we can override it is with our behaviours.

The monkey mind doesn’t realise there is more to life than just surviving,

‘…reasoning with the monkey mind is impossible, its too primitive to see the big picture that you can see with the rest of your brain.  The monkey has a narrow little view of the world, it’s perception of what’s threat and what isn’t can only be altered by one thing. It learns by watching you do.  if you want to stop being ruled by your monkey you are the one who will have to change’ – passage taken from ‘Don’t feed the monkey mind’ by Jennifer Shannon

The above paragraph highlights beautifully how narrow a view this part of the brain has and why it is so important to let the thoughts be and carry on. 

We need to see it as the more animalist side of our brains, I think as humans we don’t like this less civilised part of us but it is largely responsible for our survival so we shouldn’t wish for it not to be there, in fact people with little to no anxious tendencies tend not to live as long – however they may not care about this!   

When regulated and not in fight or flight I can observe my monkey mind throwing pretty much constant live or die scenarios at me and it can be tiring to let them flow over me and not engage.  Most people have a ‘bouncer’ on the door to their conscious mind saying, ‘no you can’t come in’ or ‘not today mate you’re too drunk, go home’, when these thoughts come in however when we have OCD there is a fault here like the ‘bouncer’ has gone on his break, as a result more of these catastrophic thoughts tend to get through.

We have to act as our own bouncer, carrying on with our day, allowing the thoughts to pop up and pass through as best we can, I know it’s hard but it’s the only way.

Just writing this today has been a helpful reminder for me, I really hope it helps you too.

As Always,
Stay Strong xxx

OCD, Perspective & An Elephant

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Blindfolded men touching different parts of an elephant's body in a dusty courtyard.

Perspective can be defined as: ‘a point of view’ or ‘way of thinking about things’ and I would argue when you have OCD your perspective is somewhat skewed towards the negative, worst case scenario and quite often completely illogical.

This is mostly due to the fact that we’re not thinking with our cognitive brains. When triggered by OCD obsessions, our more animalistic brain takes over and this one likes to think in black and white – no time for nuance when the obsession is being categorised as a life or death situation!

I heard a lovely story, which I believe originated in India, which highlights the flaws in perspective nicely:

Six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephants body. The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar, the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope, the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear say the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. -Taken from Brightening our inner skies Yin and Yoga by Norman Blair

We can learn from this story that quite often in life we are not seeing the whole picture. Our anxious brains have got us to focus in on the worst case scenario, often catastrophizing events to laughable levels, this causes us endless unnecessary suffering.

Do you find you catastrophise events and lose perspective?
Remember you are not alone, this is incredibly common but by having some knowledge we can remind ourselves that quite often there is another more favourable way to look at things.

If you most catastrophise then why not DO IT POSITIVELY!

As always,
Stay Strong xxx

Can Yoga Help OCD Recovery?

Posted in Keeping Active, Mental Health, Mental Wellbeing, OCD, OCD Awareness Week, OCD Coping Strategies, OCD GeneralTagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Woman doing tree pose yoga in forest with joyful small creature dancing beside her

I feel I must be extremely careful when I speak about more holistic approaches to OCD recovery.  Ultimately there are lots of useful tools that can help us manage day to day life, build resilience and make us more psychologically flexible.  However, if any of these are used in a compulsive way it could be argued that they are not assisting with recovery but potentially delaying it. 

As with so many things in life there is incredible nuance here and I can only really go off my own personal experience.

I remember the first time I heard someone say that ‘breathwork is a coping mechanism’ and how completely outraged I felt about it.  Breathwork, in particular the physiological sigh, was completely life changing for me, but having thought about it some more I can see how in an ideal world we shouldn’t need to control our breathing to feel OK – I do believe it still has it’s place but that’s probably another post. 

So it’s not as simple as we’d like it to be but here are some things I know:

  1. Getting rid of the thoughts is not the aim in OCD recovery
  2. Managing and maintaining good mental health, as with good physical health, is a lifelong task. 
  3. If we take good care of ourselves, making sure we get good sleep, nutrition, movement, relaxation and social connections in our lives, we build higher resilience and are therefore better able to let the thoughts pass through more easily.
  4. Yoga is highly accessible for everyone – it meets you where you’re at
  5. Movement matters, when we can’t shift our minds moving our bodies helps move the chemicals through more quickly.
  6. If you find it hard to meditate but know you should, yoga can be a moving meditation.

I have personally practiced yoga for years and have taught it for the last 6.  I can honestly say, it has the potential to change the way you think and feel.  It brings me joy, the ability to help and connect with others and takes me out of my busy mind, if only for a short while.

At the heart of yoga is awareness and when we have OCD so many things can become automatic, yoga brings you back into the moment and asks you to question automatic habits and thoughts.

Now I’m not saying it’s a cure, I still have OCD, but like I said at the start it’s not about getting rid of the thoughts but being able to see them for what they are, just thoughts.  Yoga helps build the resilience and awareness to do this more easily. 

A lot of people when they think of yoga, think of Instagram reels of people doing crazy poses but once you start to dig a bit deeper you see that there is unbelievable depth and variance to the practice.  Yoga is most definitely for everyone, and I have seen it transform and change multiple people. I can safely say that you will not regret adding yoga in as a tool to your toolbox.

Not sure where to start?  Then check out my short course here – I did write this course a few years back now and I’m hoping to add some updates in the future but the basic practices are still a great place to get started.

I hope it helps, As always
Stay Strong xxx

OCD: Stop trying to Control your Obsessions!

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Gremlin peeking out from a partially open wooden crate labeled 'Property of Gremlin's Cave - Do Not Open'

Are you trying to control your obsessions? Are they based around things you have no control over? Is this then a completely fruitless task?

Some interesting questions but lets take a step back for a second and clarify a couple of things. What is an OCD obsession anyway?

An OCD obsession is:
‘… a recurring, unwanted thought, image, urge, or impulse that repeatedly enters a person’s mind and causes significant anxiety, distress, or discomfort.’

Things we can’t control include: feelings, emotions, thoughts, images & urges. 

Take a moment now and recognise whether your OCD has come from something you have NO control over!

Hopefully that was a lightbulb moment.    

Woman having a bright idea with a light bulb above her head while studying at a desk

So much of OCD is focused in on the things we can’t control.  It can feel so powerful, and overwhelming at times, as if it deserves our time and attention but as a human we need to learn that we’re not fully in control of our internal environment and to allow these automatic ‘features’ of the human condition to just be.

We don’t have to believe every thought, feeling etc that comes into our head. Most of the time the brain is just throwing things out there to see if they stick and we have to be like Teflon, letting the thoughts just float through, showing the brain that they are irrelevant. Only then will it go off to find something else to throw your way instead, which you then need to allow to float through, so the brain sees that as irrelevant too. Get the idea?

It’s when we give these normal, automatic thoughts time and energy that the brain perks up and thinks they’re important.  It takes it as a sign that you want to see more of that content and so we can see how spirals start to happen. 

On days when I don’t let the thoughts stick it is unbelievable how many different thoughts come my way, the brain is throwing them out there constantly and it’s your job to just do nothing, in the same way it’s the brains job to keep throwing random thoughts and ideas your way. Occasionally it comes up with good ones too remember, they’re not all intrusive and unwanted.  

Why do we give away our power, focus and attention to things outside of our control?

Basically because the limbic system – emotional part of the brain – is more powerful than the cognitive one.  Yes, our thinking brain is not actually the one in control most of the time. As a result we have to learn to work with our emotional brain, not against it – as this is pretty much impossible. 

There’s a famous metaphor called: ‘The Rider and the Elephant’, which helps to describe this idea. 

The rider represents our thinking brain, good at analytics and planning, but small relative to the enormous elephant.  The elephant, represents our emotional brain, it’s vast, powerful, and often driven by instinct.  The rider has the reins but needs to work with the elephant in harmony, as when the elephant gets stirred it has the ability to dislodge the rider if it wishes. 

Person riding an elephant on a dirt path at sunrise with misty landscape

And so we have to work with, not against our emotional brain.  It is powerful and has the ability to hijack our rational thinking. 

We work with it by accepting the obsessions when they come in.  It’s worth noting here that accepting the obsessions doesn’t mean you like, agree with or want them in any way, it just shows the brain that they are irrelevant to you and so it doesn’t need to give them any of your time, attention or awareness.

It can feel impossible at times I know but the more we push back/away the stronger they become.  Like a tug of war, we have to let go of the rope not pull harder.  

My favourite phrase to use is:

‘Thank you brain, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear right now.’ 

This way you are acknowledging the obsession but not pushing it away or investing any time in it.

‘But how do I know if it’s OCD or something that does need paying attemtion to?’ I hear you ask.

Ask yourself the following questions: ‘Am I struggling?’ 

If the answer is ‘Yes!’, then its your OCD and you need to step away from the content. 

I think it’s so important to remind ourselves of these basics, as at times, especially when triggered, it can feel hard to remember that you didn’t ask for the obsession and as a result it doesn’t mean anything!

I really hope this helps, as always,
Stay Strong xxx

My issue with ERP Therapists

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Young woman talking to therapist in cozy, warmly lit room

I’ve been having a bit of a moan recently about ERP therapists.  It’s not that they’re not well intentioned but it’s my belief that they don’t show much empathy for just how hard ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) therapy actually is and it irritates me. 

Of course in theory ERP is straight forward:

  • Write a list of exposures
  • Push yourself into those exposures/outside of your comfort zone
  • Don’t complete any compulsions
  • Sit with the associated anxiety 

Easy right?

The reality however is that you are asking someone to push into things that their brain – for whatever reason – has told them are dangerous and should be avoided/worked out/prioritised at all costs!  

This is a system which is designed to get people to ACT urgently.  A system which is so powerful it turns off the cognitive brain and takes over!! 

Our brains are designed to prioritise this system over all others to keep us safe.  It is instinctive, irrational and isn’t able to access the logical strategies that made complete sense in your therapists office.

Not only that but this system throws cortisol and adrenalin around our bodies, which is incredibly tiring, making ERP therapy exhausting! 

So what we’re really asking of someone with OCD, is for them to push themselves daily into a system which is designed to make you do the opposite.

Everyone has fears, things they don’t like/avoid and most people don’t have to push into them, maybe ever. 

So just know, when doing your exposures, you are being asked to do something that most other people avoid like the plague and you’re being asked to do it again and again and again by someone sitting comfortably in their office, probably not living the ERP lifestyle themselves. 

A lot of OCD therapists come from backgrounds with OCD so have some understanding BUT once you’ve done ERP for a while and you’re making good progress, it can be very easy to forget how hard it is. 

This happened to me recently when I started to learn to swim.  I’ve always had fears associated swimming, following an incident when I was younger, where I found myself out of my depth in a lake and basically freaked out. Since then I haven’t liked being out of my depth or putting my head under the water.

I was feeling pretty strong mentally so why not push further out of my comfort zone? Push into some of those long held fears, which start to become your identity!

We’ve all got them, finish this sentence for me: ‘I just don’t like________’


I’m great at this ERP malarky, I was thinking, little did I know what was coming my way!

To encourage myself to push into this one I signed myself up to a Sprint triathlon, the first part of which is a 400m swim. 
I started doing some lessons with one of my colleagues who’s a swim teacher and OMG putting my head under the water was completely terrifying.  I wanted nothing more than to get out of that water, go home and never get back in that pool again, not only that but the next day I was completely exhausted. Reality check for me and big reminder of how hard it can be.  

I knew I had to go back the following week and it was still hard, but maybe not 100%, perhaps 97%, my brain was still screaming at me to get out the whole time.

Honestly, I’m still making progress with this one, fears, especially ones held for a long time, do not disappear quickly and require continued exposure – sorry! 

Being able to recognise this and keep going is a skill we have to hone and it is extremely hard.  If you can master it, you are stronger mentally than 99% of the population. 
As people with OCD we’re already dealing with a fault in this system, alerting us unnecessarily daily and then we’re being asked to add more on top. 

Honestly, we deserve medals and more recognition for how tough this work is and it is work, HARD work! 

So here’s the biggest well done from me to you, for not giving up, for fighting every day for something you didn’t ask for and definitely don’t deserve. 

You are amazing, you are not alone,
Stay Strong xxx

Are You Falling into OCD’s Sneaky Trap?

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Two men labeled Reason and Logic pulling a large brain away from a creature labeled OCD

OCD can be so sneaky and when you’ve had it for a long time, if you’re not careful, you can start to form automatic habits around it. These can be so sneaky, you don’t even realise you’re doing them but these habits are actually sneaky compulsions keeping you stuck!!!!!

This has happened to me and probably still does when I don’t catch it in time.  One habit in particular stands out here, as I now realise it was/is a compulsion which has been keeping my OCD going, argh!!

What was I doing?

I was debating with my Pure O intrusive thoughts, here’s an example to show you what I mean:

An OCD intrusive thought/feeling/urge whatever comes in:

‘What if you picked up that knife now and hurt someone with it?’

What I should do:

‘Thanks OCD, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear right now’

And then carry on with my day, no more interaction, stopping it in it’s tracks. 

What I’ve been doing:

‘I wouldn’t do a thing like that, I’m a good person, look at all the kind things I’ve done which prove that – starts to list them off in my head.  I love my family/friend, why would I want to hurt them, that’s crazy.  This thought is obviously my OCD etc ect ect.’

What I’m doing here is engaging with the thought, even if its just to prove it wrong, its STILL a compulsion! 
I’m not directly worrying about the obsession or think I might action it but I’m trying to prove to myself with absolute certainty why it’s not something to worry about. This is a sneaky compulsion which I’ve been keeping going for YEARS! 

Initially I didn’t realise it was a compulsion at all and it was only when my OCD wasn’t getting better that I dug a bit deeper and realised that by trying to prove the OCD thought wrong, I was keeping it alive! 


Say it with me now:

Boy with brown hair wearing orange shirt and blue jeans shouting angrily with clenched fists outside

It wasn’t a great feeling when I worked this one out and I still find it really hard not to engage with the thoughts to this day.

For whatever reason I feel like I have to prove to my brain, beyond any shadow of doubt, that I’m a good person. I take myself off on a positivity spiral, desperately trying to affirm my character but of course this is fruitless when it comes to OCD, as I’ve proven to myself over the last few years. 

Remember OCD has imagination at its fingertips, where there will always be another ‘what if?’ or ‘maybe?’ coming your way.

This is how OCD’s sneaky trap keeps you stuck inside your head, distracted and not fully engaging in the real world. You’re trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle, debating with your own imagination – sneaky or what!

When I don’t do this compulsion, I have to leave the obsession ‘open’, which my brain hates. This is of course ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) therapy in action and exactly what we need to do.  

Do you find yourself doing this? 
I’d love to know if anyone else has fallen into this sneaky trap.

As always, Stay Strong xxx   

Overcoming OCD: A leap of Faith

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Make OCD words slightly darker

You could look at OCD as being a fault in the ‘good enough’ system.  For whatever reason in people with OCD the brain’s ability to dismiss thoughts which ‘normal’ people can, seems impossible. 

Thoughts are stickier, they hang around and as a result our fight or flight nervous system gets triggered, making the thoughts (obsessions) feel more visceral and real – they’re not of course but try telling yourself that when you’re triggered! 

When we’re stuck in an OCD spiral it can feel overwhelming, all consuming and urgent.  It feels like working out the thought is the only thing that matters but of course investing any time in the thought is always going to make it worse.

OCD asks us to take a leap of faith, and this is why recovery is so hard.  We’re basically saying to ourselves:

‘I know every instinct in your body is telling you to work this out right now but you need to do the exact opposite and have faith, not proof, not certainty but blind faith, that what your brain is telling you is wrong. ‘

Bring creepy character closer to foreground

I’ve had a few occasions over the years where I’ve been stuck in a spiral for days and eventually, I’ve just had to take that first step and trust that all will be OK.

It feels impossible I know, like jumping out of a plane not knowing whether your parachute is packed correctly but the alternative of being stuck is also not that appealing.

It’s only when we’re brave enough to keep going, letting the thoughts be, that the brain starts to see, ‘oh that thing I’ve been stressing about didn’t actually happen’ – this is called expectancy violation and it’s incredibly powerful. 

Each time we prove to our brain that what we thought might happen didn’t, the thoughts start to ease a bit and the next time it’s slightly easier and the time after that a bit easier again and so on. 

OCD recovery happens slowly, particularly when it’s been around for a while.  It’s needs a lot of proof that all is well before it starts to relax. 

This is why ERP – exposure response prevention – is that gold standard for OCD recovery, as it requires us to push into our OCD obsessions and carry on regardless of how we feel. It’s only through this action and continued exposures that the brain starts to chill. 

I do believe ERP needs to be supported with psychoeducation and nervous system support to give you the best opportunity for success.  Gaining knowledge and understanding of how OCD works has been so empowering for me and it’s why I write this blog.  It acts as a reminder for me to not give into compulsions but hopefully also helps others understand OCD better. 

I really hope it helps,
Stay Strong xxx   

6 Strategies to Combat OCD Spirals

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Person standing outdoors at night looking up at the Milky Way galaxy in the star-filled sky

This week I’ve been under the weather, nothing too extreme just a cold but the impact it’s had on my mental health and resilience levels I thought was worth highlighting. 

I’ve spoken before about the threat bucket and how each day we wake up with a base level of resilience.  This can change day-to-day depending on how we feel, how well we’ve taken care of ourselves, what’s going on with our health as well as what’s happening in the world around us. So many things can knock our resilience day to day, not to mention our OCD. 

Understandably then as I got slowly more poorly over the weekend my resilience levels got lower.

I observed as Saturday went on how the thoughts became stickier and by bedtime on Saturday an old theme had come in and had properly taken hold, as a result I did not sleep well. 

Sunday was tricky, already dysregulated because of my cold, add on top my bad night’s sleep and the ability to sit with the OCD thoughts as they came in became much more challenging.

What to do then when things are stacking up against you, despite your best efforts.

I found it useful once again to refer to my notebook, as I said in last weeks post, it’s vital to prepare for the hard times when you’re feeling good, try and make a compilation of all the things that help and uplift you, so you can refer to them when you’re not thinking as cognitively.

Anything that is going to switch your thinking brain back on, is going to be useful, become curious, be creative or find awe in the world. 

At 4am on Saturday morning the birds started singing outside and that bought me some peace, I have always found awe and wonder in birds, and this helps to pull me out of the depths of OCD spirals. 

I’ve written about these before, but I think they’re worth repeating.  Here are 6 of the best ways I know to pull yourself out of a spiral (fight or flight):

  1. Creativity – this will mean different things for different people but creativity is amazing at switching on a different part of the brain, drawing your attention away from the catastrophizing part. Quite often if you can focus on creating something, whether it be a piece of art, a yoga sequence, something in the kitchen, garden, workshop, on the computer, anything that gets you thinking outside the box, you will start to draw your attention back to a more balance place.
    What’s your creative outlet?
  2. Curiosity – This can be curiosity about anything, quite often when we become curious and interested in something it grounds us and pulls us away from that extreme black and white thinking. Try asking why? Maybe investigate how something works or why it’s the way it is.
    Have you ever wondered about anything?
  3. Humour – is fabulous for getting the brain to switch modes. It works because its unexpected, remember the brain is a prediction machine and it’s pretty good at it. When a joke comes along and it doesn’t end where the brain think it will, BAM! You’re out of default mode and the brain is switched on and listening.
    Do you like any comedians? Go and look up one of their new sets online.
  4. Awe – part of the joy of being human is our ability to find awe. It can really give you some perspective when you look at the stars, birds, clouds, landscape etc. Going out into the world and finding things that make you think, wow! Is very important to our wellbeing and it helps us reset.  What brings you that feeling of awe?
  5. A Challenge – this can be tricky when you’re in fight or flight but something which I found fun – from Martha Becks book – was to try and write your signature backwards. It takes a huge amount of focus and is very grounding. Go on, give it a try!
  6. Foundations Work – movement, nutrition, sleep, relaxation & social connection.  This takes an element of doing what you know is good for you, even when you don’t feel like it. We must take action first, do the things we know make us feel better in the long run, your body and brain will thank you.

 These have all been great for me at different times, give them a go and see if they help you too. 

But are these compulsions I hear you ask?  I would argue if you’re not doing them out of a desperate need, then no.  If you feel low and dysregulated then doing things to reregulate your system such as eating well, socialising or being creative are constructive and recommended by professionals, however if you find you’re doing them compulsively then step away!

I really hope it helps,
Stay Strong xxx