Chapter 2: Your Foundation “I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time.” — Anna Freud
I am excited to teach you how to manage and shrink your anxiety. I know how hard it is to have to deal with worry and how much it can cause distress and interfere with your life. Facing your worry takes courage and building your own 3A Toolkit to manage it takes a lot of energy. Like any strong and stable building, you really need a solid foundation to be able to do this. In this chapter, we will go over some important pieces that will form your foundation that will keep you steady as you face your anxiety and learn a new way of managing it. Think of your foundation as your overall mental health and wellbeing. Mental health and wellbeing is something we all have in varying amounts all the time, in the same way we have physical health to varying degrees. Mental health and wellbeing can fluctuate over time and is separate from dealing with the anxiety. If you have a strong foundation, or flourishing mental health and wellbeing, you are better able to manage your anxiety. These components of your foundation may not directly address your anxiety, but they are related. In other words, the stronger your mental health foundation is, the better equipped you will be to address your anxiety. Supportive People I really want you to have people to help you and support you as you continue to work on managing your worry. When you are struggling with worry, I encourage you to ask for help from a supportive adult in your life or a helping professional such as a counsellor or psychologist. Think about the important people in your life, family members and friends, who are there to help you. Worry can be really isolating, sometimes leaving you feeling like you are on your own. It really helps to have support, to know that there are people in your corner. Perhaps even invite the important people in your life to help you work through this workbook and join you in reading this workbook and working on some of the strategies with you. Consider who are the supportive people in your life. Perhaps write their names in the space below, consider what you appreciate about them, and how you want them to support you. For example, you may want to just tell them about this workbook that you’re reading, you may want to spend more time with them, or you may tell them about some of your goals regarding practicing some of the strategies in the workbook to help you be accountable. Who you look to for support and how you want them to support you is your choice, just know that these connections with the important people in our lives are really important.
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