Hey {{first_name}},
I nearly talked myself into being ill this week.
Not because anything was seriously wrong, but because my brain found a familiar feeling and immediately ran with it.
Yesterday my lower back started aching.
Not a sharp pain. Not a muscle strain. That very specific, vibrant, can't-get-comfortable ache that I know from experience.
A year ago I had a stomach bug, but because of the visceral hypersensitivity that comes with IBS, my lower back constantly ached the whole time. It was one of the strangest symptoms I've had and it felt relentless, impossible to shift no matter how I sat or moved.
Yesterday it felt exactly the same. And I also had a bit of a sore throat.
My brain immediately went there.
What if this is the start of another bug. What if it gets worse. What if I'm back to square one.
And then I stopped and spoke the facts out loud.
I've just started a new training programme and my lower back is probably just reacting to the new stress ive been putting it through.
I've also had my mild sore throat for a few days and it hasn't progressed so the chances of this becoming something worse are pretty small.
I kept coming back to those facts every time the spiral tried to start again.
And guess what, my back felt fine after some hip mobility work. The sore throat didn't get worse and nothing happened.
The spiral was the threat. Not the symptoms.
This is something I see constantly with IBS. A familiar feeling triggers a familiar fear and before you know it you're not dealing with a symptom anymore, you're dealing with a story you've told yourself about what that symptom means.
The antidote isn't positive thinking. It's facts.
What do I actually know right now? What's the most likely explanation? What's the evidence for the worst case scenario?
Nine times out of ten the facts are much calmer than the story.
This week's practical tip
Write down 3 things you regularly overthink. For each one, write down 2 things you know to be true about it. Then next time your brain starts spiralling on one of them, read those truths back to yourself out loud.
You're not trying to think positively, you're just reminding yourself of what you already know.
See you Friday with this week's recipe.
Zak