Photo: Man holding his hair against sunlight, from UnSplash
Hello friends! 🌿
Welcome to our September email!
Did you try the incredibly simple positive thinking tool I shared with you here last month? If you did, please let me know how you got on! I'd love to know if it's something you might carry on using? I know that I have found it so helpful in making sure I don't miss the positive moments.
This month I wanted to have an uncomfortable conversation about showing up and doing the work.
If I could create an app that you could use once and never worry about anything again, I would. I'd call it WorryFree and it would be a single-use, magic wand of an app. 🪄
Sadly that's just not how this works.
Mark (my husband and co-Founder of WorryTree) and I are currently using the Couch to 5K app to get back into running after injury and illness. We know that in order to reach the goal of being able to run five kilometres again, we have to break the process up into much smaller chunks.
In the first week we were running for only 90 seconds at a time. Now we're on week seven, we're able to run 25 minutes without stopping. We could not do that in week one, it felt a million miles away. And yet, with regular practice, showing up and doing the work, only six weeks later we can now run for 25 minutes.
Learning to stop overthinking and worry less is very much the same. I do not have a quick fix for you here (if I did, we would be talking instead about WorryFree from our private island).
The uncomfortable truth is that you have to keep practising, showing up and doing the work. Every time you write down your worry, get it out of your head and take action instead of overthinking, you are taking a step along the path towards worrying less.
And to reach our goal of not overthinking everything, we need to take a hundred tiny steps along that path, every day. Day after day after day.
But give it 30 days of writing down and problem-solving your worried thoughts, whether in our WorryTree app or just on a piece of paper, you will start to think and feel differently. Over time, our incredibly clever brains start to build new positive pathways that are stronger than the old, negative pathways.
Over time, we start to think differently and feel better.
And it takes work, and practice, and more work.
It's worth it; you're worth it.*
Happy practising, see you next month.
xx
PS, if you know someone who would find this helpful, please share this email with them too, I know I'd appreciate the thought from a friend. 🙏
*Shamelessly borrowed from L'Oreal.
Behind the scenes at WorryTree
Photo: Image of our WorryTree app, January 2024
This month we thought we'd try a new segment here, sharing with you a peek behind the scenes as we continue to develop our WorryTree app and other offerings. We're fairly unique in the mobile app world, because we're not a large software development company. We created an app, yes, but we're still a small family-run business based in rural Herefordshire in the United Kingdom. Louise saw a way she could help other people like her, and you can read more about her story here.
So what's new and what are we working on?
While we're just wrapping up and publishing a new version of WorryTree with some background changes that don't impact your experience of the app, hot on its heels will be another new version! In this one, we'll be tidying up some problems that were happening in our Uncertainty Tool which is available for our WorryTree Plus community, as well as turning up the volume on Sally's beautiful Sensory Practices and making sure that anyone who downloads WorryTree for the first time is invited to add their first worry straight away.
We're also working hard to make sure we meet the NHS's Digital Technology Assessment Criteria. This is a way for us to show that our app is secure, effective and safe to use for people who are learning to manage Generalised Anxiety Disorder. We're almost there and will soon be publishing on our website how we meet this important set of criteria.
WorryTree isn't just an app! After the successful launch of our Guided Workbook, we're now working on a top-secret project that will build further on that. It's still early days but this is about turning our WorryTree tools into very small, bitesize chunks that are delivered to you directly where you are every day for 30 days. Over 30 days together we can build a positive new habit that will stick. We'll let you know right here how that project is going and when it's ready to launch!
And finally, we like to practice what we preach here at WorryTree and so we've been taking a three-month social media break over the Summer and it has been WONDERFUL. Taking time out of social media has reduced down the comparison (other female founders seem to be SO MUCH more capable and organised than me!) and enabled us to work on more creative projects that will genuinely help and support people with their worries. Feels like a win, and we'll be reviewing how this has gone in a few weeks.
What do you think? Do you find it interesting seeing the inner workings of what we're doing here at WorryTree? Let us know by commenting on this post.
HELPFUL THINGS JUST FOR YOU
Photo: Top view of open book, from UnSplash
Here are a few practices, podcasts, blog posts and videos that we’re finding helpful:
Join our brand new 30-day programme for gentle daily prompts delivered by SMS or Whatsapp to your phone every morning: click here.
Read this 3-minute read - Tips for dealing with back-to-school anxiety.
Listen to this podcast episode - Call all control freaks: How to stop over-functioning
Watch this Ted Talk - The power of believing that you can improve
Fancy a little physical exercise - Harness your strengths and learn the best ways to build new habits with the Four Tendencies.
A longer read… An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.
Ready to download WorryTree?
If you haven’t already tried WorryTree (and the basic worry tree technique tool is free for everyone to use as many times as you need) then you’ll find the links below.
Remember…
If you're struggling at the moment, then know that asking for help is a sign of strength not of weakness. Contact someone you can trust like your Doctor, a friend or a relative, or text SHOUT to 85258 (UK) to start a conversation with a crisis support volunteer.