I think this a lot! When I was doing CBT I found it helpful but I did wonder what a life without having to do this would be like.My therapist told me about the “hot cross bun” model which I found quite helpful. It basically says that if you change one of the four things (e.g. try to do some deep breathing to reduce anxiety) it in turn impacts the other areas on the chart which overall makes you feel better. (Equally, when you have racing thoughts, it affects your emotions, physical body and behaviour in a negative way.) She said even just getting up and crossing the room is a good enough way to change your physical state and break the cycle. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a run or a walk because sometimes that just feels like too much.
I will also say, while this is useful, I do also think about how nice it must be not to actually need these thingsDoes anyone else ever think that? It’s like yeah great we can all learn how to better manage our thoughts and emotions but wouldn’t it be great just to not need to make this (sometimes huge) effort to avoid feeling tit?!
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Honestly do get down on myself about it sometimes that I have to do all this extra to feel "normal"
