Fact or fiction? A tool to reduce anxious behaviour.

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Have you ever experienced a strong emotion (e.g. worry) & have a thought (or several!) pop into your mind that causes you to behave/react/respond in a way that in hindsight you thought to yourself ‘I wish I had done that differently! That behaviour wasn’t reflective of who I want to be as a person!’ ?

One helpful & simple way to slow this process down & give yourself an opportunity to behave differently is to ask yourself - is the thought I’m having based in fact or fiction? Is there real evidence for this thought to be true? Or is it my emotions taking control & making me believe something not based in reality?

This question can help us to pause & interrupt our auto-pilot responses. When our thoughts are driven by strong emotions (as apposed to clear thinking) they often veer away from what’s actually true & real, causing us to behave in anxious ways.

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