Last night I had the worst dream, which combined all my worst fears: illness, incompetence, rejection, loss of control, judgment. I will not tell the dream, because I should not burden you with it. Trust me, it was bad. It would be like watching Tar, but instead of sexual abuse, the protagonist was accused of insanity.
I carried the dream with me today, throughout the meeting of two deadlines and preparation for another, 600 words to add to the novel, and an idea of what I will work on at work next year. It took away a lot of the joy I would get in these activities.
I wasted my time here — not that I didn’t get stuff done, but I wasted time where I could have been joyful. I didn’t need to hang onto the nightmare. And I could have let it go by doing some cognitive journaling.
Let’s try some:
Instigating event: Horrible nightmare, and the fear it could come true
I feel: Scared (80%), upset (60%)
Cognitive distortions: (link)
Fortune telling (I know this is going to happen?)
Awfulizing (Looking at the absolute, cartoonishly worst outcome)
How do I feel now? Both scared and upset are now down to 20%
What do I do now? Relax and take care of myself because I still have mood issues to deal with
Words Like Me 