Behind the scenes, Anxiety, Negative Thinking, Worry, Uncertainty
Louise Stevenson
Welcome to our new WorryTree!

Welcome to our all-new WorryTree app!

If you’ve installed or updated WorryTree recently then you’ll know we’ve made some really big changes - not just to the look and feel of our app but also to how it works, with some wonderful new features that we’re really proud of! 

So today we’re going to break down the changes that we’ve made here, and introduce you to our new look WorryTree!

Welcome to our new WorryTree!

Covid-19 Anxiety

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How do I deal with anxiety?

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How do I deal with anxiety?

Anxiety is something we all experience from time to time as a natural response to stress or some kind of threat, but it becomes a problem when our anxious feelings are long-term, chronic and out of proportion to the situation or event. That’s when it’s important that we seek help and support from our families, friends and/or a health professional.

As it’s Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 and this year’s theme is anxiety, we asked our team and our community what are their go-to ways to deal with their anxiety.

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How do I get back to sleep in the middle of the night? And other questions...

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How do I get back to sleep in the middle of the night? And other questions...

Have you ever tried sleeping with a bear in your room?

Not a teddy bear. Not a beautiful Paddington bear. A great big growling, grizzly bear.

Chances are, you’re not going to get much sleep! Why would you?

Every system in your body is in a state of high alert, doing its best to keep you safe.

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How scheduling worry time can help with anxiety

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How scheduling worry time can help with anxiety

Simply trying not to think or worry about something just doesn’t work. And that can be where the worry time technique can really help some people. You’re not trying not to think about it, you’re noting it down and making a deal with your brain to think about it later.

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What are Body Focussed Repetitive Behaviours?

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What are Body Focussed Repetitive Behaviours?

Do you ever find yourself anxiously pulling on your hair, picking your skin or biting your nails? You might not notice you are doing it, or maybe you just brush it off as a ‘bad habit’, but these actions are actually what's known as Body Focussed Repetitive Behaviours (BFRB’s).

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How to use WorryTree

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How to use WorryTree

A few weeks ago our Founder Louise jumped onto Zoom in a live webinar where she talked us through the WorryTree cognitive behavioural therapy technique and how to use our WorryTree app!

If you missed it, you can watch a recording of the session here!

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How to get through uncertain times

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How to get through uncertain times

Life can be really uncertain sometimes. Things come up that are scary and hard, whether that’s unexpected pandemics, health scares, job losses, divorce or some other major life challenge.

When the shit hits the fan it’s hard to think straight. In uncertain times thoughts can spiral endlessly for days and you can find yourself sucked into the Google void and obsessively catastrophising every possible worst-case scenario. If you’re someone who lives with habitual negative thinking or generalised anxiety in the best of times, the worst of times can seem completely overwhelming. Insurmountable.

There’s a superpower we have though that we can use in our favour. Planning…

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How to distract yourself from worried thoughts

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How to distract yourself from worried thoughts

‘Distraction’ is really referring to the practice of mindfully refocusing your attention. This is where we break the chain of worried thinking and rumination by doing something else, preferably physical. I’m sure you’ve been there. A worried thought has popped into your mind and before you know it that thought has snowballed into a hundred other negative thoughts.

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How to manage 'what if' worries

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How to manage 'what if' worries

I’ve recently been trying a new daily practice to help me manage my worries called a thought download. The basic idea of this is spending fifteen minutes, every day if possible, literally downloading all of my thoughts onto a piece of paper until my mind is empty. It’s early days, but I do find this process empties my mind of all the clutter, and then depending on how much time I have I will pick one or two of the thoughts and work them through in WorryTree.

One thing I’ve noticed since I began practicing this technique is that a large number of my downloaded thoughts tend to begin with ‘what if’.

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Here's how I've learnt to cope with uncertainty this year

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Here's how I've learnt to cope with uncertainty this year

It's been quite a year hasn't it so far? I'm writing this today hours before we hear what the latest set of restrictions are going to be in the UK. Thankfully the schools are back and businesses are open, but the virus is spreading again here and it feels like it's going to be a challenging winter.

These are uncertain times and for many of us, especially those of us with a tendency to worry, uncertainty brings fear and anxiety. I for one am not a fan of uncertainty, and yet everything about our lives is uncertain.