would you like some tips I got from my therapist a while ago that helped me?

(also I suggest this book )

(some of the things there are a little eh but overall I found it useful)

I would love some tips

okay, one of the first things we did was make a kind of worksheet with four columns and as many rows as you need

in the first column, you identify the worry, like "I'm afraid I'm going to do poorly on my exam."

in the second, you identify if you can actually do anything productive about the worry

if yes, the third becomes "create solutions"

in this example, you could study more, or ask the prof for help, or go to friends for a group study session, etc

in the third it's important to just let your mind go and not think about whether or not a solution is good - just write whatever you can think of down

and then in the fourth column, you write the pros and cons of each solution and approach them rationally, deciding which one will get you what you want in the best way possible

if you can't do anything productive about your worry, like... say you're freaking out about the economy as a whole, the third column becomes "how do I let this go"

effective strategies vary from person to person, but the thing I found worked well was visualization

you close your eyes and imagine something peaceful and serene, and then you imagine writing down your worry and then letting it go

like... imagine a river, and then letting the worry flow down the river and out of sight

it's kind of silly, but it works for me |Da;

I should do that for most of my current worries which are RP related

Regardless whether they can be changed...they're not...priorities?

mm, the main thing is to recognize the difference between 'good worries' which can be changed and 'bad worries' which cannot

/nods

I'm still inclined to categorize my worries into "rational" and "irrational"

Like if it's "I"m worried I can't pay my bills on time", that's rational; "I'm worried about my RP reputation" is...eh

that's one way to do it, but given the negative connotations associated with 'irrational' it can lead to sneaky hate spirals v_v

True

I guess it boils down to the definition of "productive"

basically, is there anything you can do that will directly affect the source of the worry