Hi everybody,
Welcome back.
Today's tool is percentage of change.
Percentage of
change is something you're gonna use regardless of emotion,
But the first part
is step one,
Identify your emotion.
That can be really hard for people.
There's a
whole lot we have even if we choose to go to just one as our primary.
So here's
a list,
It's pretty expansive,
Of different emotions that we have as an
example to show you what I mean.
This might be a little bit too much to think
about and look at so let me break it down a little further and here's some
common ones.
Anxiety,
Depression,
Anger,
Frustration,
Sadness,
Fear,
Uncertainty,
Worry.
There's many more but those are some common ones that come up.
Next then
you want to think of percentage.
What percentage am I at within that emotion?
It might be 100%,
It might be 75%,
It might be 32%.
It doesn't matter,
Whatever it is you want to give it is the right answer.
I'll give two different
examples here,
Anxiety and depression.
So you've identified your emotion and
percentage of where you're at.
Even at the percentage that you choose,
It is the
right percentage for whatever you say that it is.
So whatever your percentage
is for if you're feeling anxiety,
Mark it down in your mind and you might want to
even consider documenting this information for about a week.
But what
percentage are you at?
If you're feeling anxious you might be at a high
percentage if you're having obviously an anxiety or panic attack,
But even if
you're pacing a lot,
Having racing thoughts,
Can't settle down,
Losing focus,
Feeling very scattered,
Disorganized kind of thing,
Well that might feel like a
hundred percent for you.
And someone else might be at a hundred percent in anxiety
where they're just having a lot of racing thoughts,
Difficulty settling down
and maybe some digestive issues.
They might also be having some body pain.
Someone else might also just recognize that they're having a high level of
anxiety because they're breathing different.
Whatever it is for you,
This is
a building block.
So we're just starting where you're at and that's the right
place to be.
With depression,
A hundred percent might feel very different than
that anxiety example.
Maybe you're having really dark thoughts about your future,
About life.
Maybe you're having a hard time getting out of bed,
Getting moving,
Even doing anything.
So whatever it is for you,
What is your 100%?
What are the
variations between?
Find your emotion.
What percentage are you at?
Step three.
You're going to now start noticing small and slight percentages of change.
So for
anxiety,
Maybe you start to notice little moments that you're in the present
moment that you're not all up in your brain and your mind is racing.
And maybe
those moments are only five minutes.
Maybe you were able to have a
conversation that you were able to be present in and was very fulfilling for
you.
Maybe you notice that you were able to stop pacing.
Maybe you were able to
sit down and enjoy a meal without thinking about stress,
Etc.
And then when
you notice,
You have that awareness,
Then you're gonna notice what percentage am I
at right now.
If I felt like I was at a hundred percent and I was able to have a
present conversation and be out of my,
You know,
Anxious mind for a moment,
My
body might have calmed down for a little bit.
Well now maybe I noticed that I went
from 100 to down.
Maybe it's only down to 90.
It doesn't have to be a huge drop
down.
And then maybe later that afternoon you were able to get outside and maybe
it's just for a 15-minute walk.
Notice percentage of change.
How anxious are you
then?
Maybe your anxiety level then you notice is down to a 70%.
So it's starting
to bank the information.
With depression,
For example,
Can't get out of bed,
Maybe
you're a hundred percent.
Maybe it's lower than that.
Maybe it's just you're
out of bed,
You're moving,
But you can't really get moving.
You can't really feel
like you want to do anything.
And then maybe you flash your face with some
water and maybe you might even brush your teeth,
Right?
Well that might take
you from 100 to maybe 97%.
And then you go in and you drink some water and maybe
it's just a tiny little glass.
It's going to help percentage of change of
whatever's going on.
You know,
If I'm dehydrated,
It's gonna change that
percentage,
Right?
So same thing with emotion.
So now maybe you drink a little
bit of water,
You have some orange juice or some herbal tea or some coffee or
something.
What is the percentage of change?
Now maybe you're down to an 80%
with that depression.
So you're gonna have your emotion,
You're gonna
have your first initial,
What percentage are you at?
And then you're going to
start collecting the information of where you have small percentages of
change.
What are you doing then and what is the percentage?
What do you notice in
your emotion?
You might notice an emotion change of percentage and sometimes you
might actually notice there's another emotion there.
As I mentioned,
It can be
hard for people to recognize notice emotion and sometimes we jump over our
primary one and go to a secondary emotion that feels more comfortable.
So
in this exploration,
You might start discovering some of that and we want to
start here.
So just start with kind of breaking this apart.
When you're
collecting this information,
You might want to write it down.
You might want to
kind of keep that journal that maybe you've already had if you've been with
me for a bit here or start one because it's sometimes we can lose sight of it.
We might like,
Oh,
Bank that information.
Oh,
I noticed that when I go out in
nature,
It really changes how I'm feeling or when I have a conversation with a
friend,
It really times out some of the other stuff or it helps my emotion
regulate differently or when I pause and I get out of the storytelling in the
mind,
I recognize how in the present moment,
My emotions,
There's nothing
going on here.
So I can maybe be really regulated the more I stay in the present
moment,
For example.
So you're going to be collecting information and it can be
helpful to write it down because then you're going to see your own patterns.
And in the meantime,
You can also pop over here,
Check out the Therapy Notes
series.
A lot of important information there that can help you with your mental
health.
Thanks again.
And I'll see you real soon.
Have a good one.
