Thrive Programme Advent Day 8 – The trouble with hypervigilance

”Why hasn’t my friend messaged me back? Is it because she doesn’t really like me?”

”Does this tummy ache mean I’m going to be sick? I can’t cope if I’m sick”

”What was that noise? I won’t be able to get back to sleep now”

“This headache must be the sign of a terminal illness”

Etc, etc …. This is the result of constant worrying along with unhelpful thinking such as catastrophic, negative, paranoid thinking. It leads to living almost all the time in a stressed state.

Constantly worrying wears us down and leads to feeling overwhelmed

We often worry about the small stuff that we can actually manage leading to these worries building up and feeling huge great catastrophes in waiting

One really simple way to do this that you could start today is to make sure to prioritise some time every day to relax, switch off and do something you enjoy. When you do that, you let your body know that you’re not in immediate, imminent danger, helping you to create calm rather than panic. Even if it is just for a few minutes, it will make a difference. Even better, put it in your diary/on the calendar to make sure you prioritise it in the same way as you would an appointment or a meeting. Also learning not to sweat the small stuff and to nip worries in the bud helps us keep perspective and reduces our stress levels.