How visualizing my thoughts cut my anxiety in half.

Hello. I'm Hiro.

Have you noticed that I often highlight "visualization" as a key point in my articles?

Have you realized that?

In this post, I will explain just how amazing this visualization process is.

I will explain that this time.

Have you ever felt like your mind was so cluttered that you didn't know where to start?

I have. In fact, it happens to me all the time.

Work tasks, the future, money, career, relationships.

Even though these should be separate worries, the more I thought about them, the more they seemed to connect on their own.

Work isn't going well -> Is this really okay? -> Will I have enough money? -> What will happen to my future?

Before I knew it, they had turned into a giant mass of anxiety.

The more anxious I became, the more my mental resources were consumed by that anxiety.

As a result, I lost the capacity to think about anything else, eventually reaching a state of mental paralysis.

Literally, I couldn't do anything at all.

Looking back now, I think my mind was constantly in a state of overload.

Anxiety grows because it is "invisible".

I've realized one thing.

Anxiety feels the biggest when it's just inside your head.

Things without a defined shape can expand indefinitely.

"A vague sense of fear"

The state of feeling "vaguely anxious"

If it continues, that anxiety will keep growing.

It starts absorbing even trivial things that wouldn't normally bother you...

For example, when you're 10 yen short at a vending machine and can't buy water.

What would normally just be a "darn" moment turns into,

Why does my life never go right, even at times like this!!

something like that.

However, this anxiety has a property where it loses its momentum the moment it becomes visible.

In other words, making it visible makes it smaller.

Things that felt enormous while they were inside your head

can become "Oh, is that all it is?" the moment you write them down on paper.

This is the power of visualization.

How to visualize

There is nothing difficult about it.

The steps are: 1. Write down what you are anxious about

2. Write down how you are feeling at that moment

3. Write down what you want to do, how you want to be, or how to solve it.

It is just this.

1. Write down everything that is on your mind.

Things you are worried about, things on your mind, things you need to do,
things you are afraid of. The genre and order do not matter.
Write down everything that comes to mind, without leaving anything out.

2. Write down your emotional state.

What happened?
How did you think and feel about it?
Is it anger, sadness, or impatience?
By naming your emotions, you can see what you are reacting to.

3. Write down what you want to do.

How do you want to solve it? How do you want things to be? What can you do to solve it?
What can you do right now?

It can be a prediction or just a wish for how you want things to turn out.

Write down your next move. This is important.

Once you can see even one "next move," your thinking starts to move forward.

Writing things down gets tasks out of your head.

Visualization has another effect.

As long as things are in your head, you are unconsciously trying to "remember" them.
You try to keep them somewhere in your mind so you do not forget them.

That slowly wears you out.

The moment you write it down on paper or a note, your brain can let it go.

It decides that it "no longer needs to remember it."

Because you keep it in your head, it consumes your resources,

and that is why you get tired.

Let's erase even the smallest unnecessary tasks.

Because your mind will feel a little lighter.

This little bit really pays off later on.

The same thing happens in business

Actually, this isn't just effective for organizing your own mind.

The exact same thing applies to work.

Organizing remaining tasks, confirming what needs to be done next, and checking for oversights.

Plus, grasping the overall picture of your work and gathering material for future plans.

By doing this, your work efficiency will improve significantly.

For those who feel like their work isn't going well,

are you perhaps trying to organize everything just in your head?

If you try to process everything only in your head, you will inevitably miss something.

More than you might think, the human brain is not good at seeing the whole picture all at once.

By writing things down, you can see what you've missed.

It becomes easier to set priorities. When aligning your understanding with your boss or colleagues,

having things put into words makes the conversation go much faster.

Organizing your thoughts is directly linked to the quality of your work.

What "visualizing" changed for me

I started this to slowly regain my sense of self after my mind became so overwhelmed that I couldn't think about anything.

I started this to slowly regain my sense of self.

At first, I was scared. Because writing things down meant I had to face my true feelings.

But once I wrote them down, I was able to organize them better than I thought.

The moment I realized, "I was carrying so much," I also felt,

"When I look at them one by one, they are all manageable problems."

If I solve this and that, maybe things will actually go well.

That's how I started to think about my next step.

I've written down a record of how I organized the root causes of what I was struggling with here.

There is one more situation where visualization made a big difference.

Job interviews.

As I wrote down my experiences, there was a moment when I realized, "This might be a strength."

I still remember the feeling of learning that something I had always taken for granted was actually a strength in the eyes of others.

I still remember it even now.

How I found my strengths and how I used them in interviews.

I have written the specific methods for that here.

Organizing your thoughts is about getting to know yourself.

What you are afraid of, what you are looking for, and what you are good at.

There are things that only become visible when you write them down.

It's not difficult. If you have paper and a pen, you can start today.

If you are feeling anxious, please feel free to leave a comment.

Let's get through this together.

Hiro

Please be sure to read my other articles as well.

Self-introduction

What triggered my adjustment disorder

The changes I experienced due to adjustment disorder and the methods I practiced while on leave to face it
Internal perspective

Lifestyle perspective

Career change perspective