Today’s score – 13%

Setbacks are inevitable, I know that. But it still nips like mad when it happens.

To begin making a forward plan in life, to build me up after I had a fall-apart this year, my counsellor suggested something to me. It was to revisit something I’d enjoyed in another time of my life which had lain abandoned. It would involve a number of things I’d find challenging. On the way home from the session, the panic started. And it grew and grew into something disproportionate. By the end of the day I had a high heart rate and a ball of queasiness inside me. I slept on it and it had turned to doubt and tears by the next day.

So what do we do? How do we stop the downward spiral when we get that inevitable setback? Suggestions are always welcome, but I think it something like this:

• Head back – even if the whole point is not to, if its too much, its too much, nothing will be achieved so head back into a safe place.

• Take comfort in the familiar – remind yourself all is ok. See it for what it is, a singular setback. It is not game over.

• Allow time – you hit a bump, allow the disappointment to dissipate, you can’t control the speed.

• Find a win in another area – regulate self with something solid.

And just keep swimming.

 Love from

The room above the garage

A Moodscope member