The Worry Window: A Simple Tool for Postpartum Anxiety

Transcript

Okay, let's talk about one of my favorite techniques for postpartum anxiety. It's called the worry window and let me show you how it works. So this is literally just in my notes app, nothing fancy. I keep a note called my worries and this is where I write down any worries that pop up in my mind during the day. And at the top of my list, I keep a little key. A check mark means that there's a tiny action that I can take on this worry. And the squiggly means that I have to accept uncertainty and set this worry aside. And this is important because it helps your brain realize that not every worry needs a solution. Some just need a place to live. Some just need to be acknowledged. So when a new thought hits like this one, I just drop it right into the list. The goal isn't to fix it right now. It's to get it out of your head and into a container that you control. During your worry window, which is a 10 minute space that you choose each day, you can come back and go through these one by one. And you can label each one with a check mark if there's a tiny action or a squiggly if it's an uncertainty that I can't solve. So this keeps you from spiraling all day. And it teaches your brain that you don't have to have a plan for every worry, at least not right this second. It's honestly one of the quickest ways to interrupt postpartum anxiety because it creates boundaries where your brain thinks that there aren't any. So try it tonight. One note, one list, one tiny window. It changes so much.