In part one of this three-part series, we talked about how anxiety can manifest in our lives, what mindset we might need in order to create a meaningful strategy for natural relief, and learned the four phases of my personal strategy creation system. Before we jump into the anxiety assessment, make sure you have downloaded the PDF workbook here:
In this second part, we will do an anxiety assessment – some initial exploration to help you understand your current situation, priorities, and goals. Then we will get deeper into each of the four pillars, breaking down some of the ways you can determine which pillar to pull from, and what types of activities might work best for you. In the next part, I will list out a ton of activities for you to choose from to build your strategy and have some fun.
Assessing
The first part of any good planning or strategy development is assessment, and it’s no different for something like anxiety. It’s important to know where you and plan for where you want to go. Especially with our tendency to over-simplify anxiety healing (as mentioned in part one), it’s important to understand what is possible, what is ideal, and have some compassionate and flexible goals for ourselves. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t want to find relief and get back to living a better life. But setting a goal of “Be completely free from anxiety in 3 months,” for example, is unattainable and counterproductive.
The Anxiety Inventory
Have you ever taken a life inventory or a wheel of life assessment? It’s a pretty fun exercise, and I do one each year around the new year. Here’s an example. Basically, you do some thinking and writing to determine your current level of satisfaction within a few life categories – health, relationships, career, etc. The idea with the anxiety inventory is similar, and it serves two key purposes.
First, we can get so wrapped up in the aftermath of our anxiety (i.e. what anxiety prevents us from doing in our lives) that we don’t take time to notice how it shows up, any patterns in the timing, or who else might be involved. These are clues to the “signal” that anxiety is giving us, as mentioned in part one.
Second, it reveals areas where we are unclear, unsure, or just afraid to dig. These areas are essential to find – and to be clear, there is absolutely no shame in having these! In fact, when you identify some of these, you should feel good. Knowing where your blind spots or fear lies is huge, and it can take some time to get there. Please have patience with yourself through this process.
To be clear, there is an anxiety inventory tool that psychologists use, called the “Beck Anxiety Inventory.” What I will outline as an anxiety assessment / inventory below is different, and something I created for the purposes of self-discovery only, not official diagnosis.
So, let’s get into the inventory!
Start with your “why”
For all you Simon Sinek fans like myself, this will be a familiar concept. It’s well and good to start taking note of physical responses and thinking through strategies that might help, but WHY are you doing this at all?
Many of us likely have similar reasons for wanting to learn to manage our anxiety. We want to live without so much fear of anxiety, be more comfortable in our bodies, etc. But everyone has a unique situation surrounding their journey, and particularly the start of their journey. Why are you reading this right now? What is driving you to make some changes?
In this section, you’ll do some writing. If you’re not already someone who writes in a journal or is not super comfortable with it, I’m going to encourage you to do it anyway, and do it with a pen and paper, not on a computer (and not with anything with an eraser!). The act of writing slows down our cognition in a way that helps us process things. And for sufferers of anxiety, it’s important to take these activities slowly and relaxedly. This writing is not for anyone but you. No one will ever read it but you. And if you can release yourself of any judgment or expectation, it can be a very enlightening exercise.
Here are the prompts to help clarify your “why”. Complete the entry for each one before moving onto the next:
- What prompted you to begin the research you are doing right now? What about this moment is telling you to search for ways to find relief?
- How do you describe your relationship to anxiety? (this is an intentionally vague question – sit with this one and see what comes to you)
- In your experiences with anxiety, what have you learned so far?
Begin your vision
Whenever we do any planning, it is beneficial to envision where we want to go. It’s the same with anxiety relief. But let’s dig in a bit to what this exercise is, and what it isn’t.
This exercise in the anxiety assessment is about starting a vision (your vision will shift over time) for what your life could look like when living in peace with your anxiety. Visioning can involve writing and defining, but it can also involve meditations and visualizations to actually feel what a relaxed body feels like, and how you might move through life with less worry, more confidence, and more control.
This exercise is NOT about judging yourself, or creating an unrealistic goal. If it is painful to do this type of visioning right now, it’s okay to skip it for now. Take time for it when you are able to really create a positive outlook for yourself, and imagine a future that feels comfortable, balanced, and achievable.
As I mentioned in part one, anxiety may be a lifelong companion for some of us. So instead of imagining being completely free from it, try defining a vision of balance. Imagine being able to understand the triggers for your anxiety more deeply. Imagine knowing yourself better, and taking anxiety in stride. Imagine using anxiety as a constant tool for learning.
Your vision is your own, but those are just some ideas. Take plenty of time for this exercise, and feel free to be creative with how you document this (drawings, photographs, articles, vision boards, etc).
Here’s your prompt: Imagine what your life would be like if you lived in harmony with your anxiety. What does it look like, feel like, sound like, taste like, etc? Describe this vision in detail.
Make note of your physical responses
In the final part of the anxiety assessment, take a moment to understand your physical responses to anxiety a bit deeper. As you experiment with new techniques, you will likely gain even more clarity about what these physical responses are. But for now, use the worksheet to log which responses are most common for you, and then do a bit of writing about how long these have been occurring, what has shifted over time, and any patterns or combinations you have noticed.
Using the phases
Before you start choosing activities, you can practice determining what phase you are in. I have created a little decision tree that can help. Overall, this process is about feeling out how prepared you are for exploration. It is perfectly okay to set boundaries for yourself until you feel ready to go deeper.
Next Steps
Hopefully this anxiety assessment has been helpful for getting a clearer picture and motivating you to take the next steps. Remember that you can always come back to these or re-do them as things evolve for you (which they will!).
In the next post, part three, we will jump into a few activities you can do in each phase. Keep in mind that I will be adding activities weekly to new blog posts, so make sure you have downloaded the strategy guide below and you are on my email list for receiving those. As usual, if you have any questions or need support, please send me a message! I would love to hear from you.