This challenge is designed for unpacking, sorting, and releasing your negative thoughts and worry. 

Often times worrying occurs in a loop, especially when we suppress our negative thoughts. 

This exercise brings our negative thoughts to the forefront and confronts them. It allows us to actually take some benefit from the thoughts before releasing them. 

There are two questions that we must ask ourselves when we confront a negative thought. It’s best to physically write these down:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it helpful? 

Once we’ve done this, we can use a quick visualization exercise on releasing our negative thoughts.

Let’s go through an example together. 

Example Negative thought: I’m going to mess up this presentation. 

Is it true? No, I haven’t given the presentation yet so I haven’t messed it up. 

Is it helpful? Actually, yes, it means that I care about the presentation, which is a good thing. It also means I should put aside some extra time to prepare a bit more. 

After you unpack and sort the thought, it’s time to release it. Close your eyes and imagine the thought is a stone. Now use your imagination to throw the stone into a deep lake. 

You can use other visualization techniques if you like. You can try imagining the thought is a balloon you release into the air or a leaf on a fast-moving river. Whatever works best for you. 

This exercise can be done anywhere, anytime, multiple times a day. 

Good luck!