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A colleague, Dr Naomi Baum, has written a free booklet, which I will present here, with her permission. It is a 7 day journey, which I will present over the next 7 days. Her website: naomibaum.com
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
Before getting started, I recommend that you get a notebook that will accompany you as you read this book and do the exercises. Any size notebook will work. I personally favour notebooks with nice covers, but that is up to you. This notebook will be your Journal. Keep it near you, as you read this book, so that you can do the exercises that require writing and track your progress.
HOW THIS WORKS
The is written as a seven-day journey. That means that each day covers a different topic. You can work through the book in one week, choosing one exercise from each chapter. However, many of you may prefer to take it more slowly. In order to do that, you may turn each day into a full week, and spend some time over the week doing the exercises, trying out some new behaviours, and reflecting on what worked for you and what did not. There is often more than one exercise suggested. Feel free to experiment. Be forewarned. Not every suggestion here will work for every person. Each one of you is different. Find what works for you.
DAY 3. UNCOVERING YOUR FEARS
In this chapter, we will get down to business. Just what are you afraid of? Are you afraid to talk about your fears, write them down, imagine them, or even think about them? You are not alone. The biggest fear that most of us carry around deep in our hearts is the fear of fear itself.
Being afraid of our fears can be paralyzing. In fact, at this point, you may be ready to close this book, never to open it again. All I can say to you is, try to stay with me. I believe that if you hang in there until the end of this book, you will find significant relief from the fears that have been haunting you. I do not promise that these fears will disappear, however, I do firmly believe that they will change, diminish, and stop dominating your life and your actions.
Before we get started, let us practice a Minute of Mindfulness. This will help to restore a sense of calm.
Remember how to do this?
Minute of Mindfulness
1. Sit comfortably in your chair, feet on the ground, one hand on your belly, the other on your chest.
2. Breathe in through your nose to the count of four.
3. Hold your breath to the count of two
4. Breathe out through your mouth, SLOWLY, to the count of 5 or 6.
5. Repeat three more times.
6. Notice how your body feels in the chair from the top of your head down to your toes.
7. Notice any sounds.
8. Notice how you are feeling inside.
Now we are ready for our first exercise.
EXERCISE: FAMILIAR FEARS
Materials you will need: Your Journal
1. Open your Journal and write at the top of the page (in red if you wish): "My Fears"
2. Number the lines from one to ten.
3. Write one fear on each line.
These may be old fears or new fears. The fears may be related to the Coronavirus, to other medical issues, to how you maybe affected by Coronavirus including finances, family, work, the economy, world peace, nuclear threat or anything else that comes into your mind. If you find that you need more than ten lines, go ahead, and write down as many fears as you have.
4. When you have completed your list, take a deep breath, pat yourself on the back, and get something to drink (preferably non-alcoholic). Great job!
5. Now that you have patted yourself on the back, and taken a little break, begin to review your list. Assign a number to each fear from one to ten, with one being a teeny tiny fear that you barely notice, and ten being a humongous fear that paralyzes you and keeps you up at night. You can think about the scale of one to ten along these lines:
1 - tiny fear
2- very small fear
3- small fear
4-getting a little bigger
5-medium sized fear
6-a little bigger
7-a significant fear
8-a very worrisome fear
9-a huge fear
10-a humongous fear
Now we will chart our fears. The horizontal axis (X axis) will chart the intensity, and the vertical axis (Y axis) will be a simple count of how many fears you have that are in that category. Have a look at the chart below, and try to draw a similar one in your Journal. Count how many fears are a "1", and enter that into the chart. Now count how many are a "2", and so on. The chart will look something like this:
TO VIEW THIS CHART, GO TO WWW.NAOMIAUM.COM IF YOU CAN'T RECALL YOUR MATHS LESSONS!
7. When you are finished plotting, step back for a moment and take a breath. Pat yourself on the back, again, and tell yourself that you are doing a great job.
8. Look at the chart. Ask yourself the following questions:
What do you notice?
What is the intensity level of most of your fears? Does this surprise you?
Is this what you expected?
Before you close your Journal for today, consider how brave you have been. You have done some very hard work. Go back and have a look at you resources list from Chapter 2.
healthunlocked.com/lupus-su...
Choose something from that list that makes you feel good. Perhaps make yourself a cup of tea, go for a walk, or watch a movie. Do something nice for yourself. You deserve it.
