Notice What You Keep to Yourself
A one-line daily log of what you kept to yourself, and who felt the effect anyway.
An Iroko Health tool, drawing on self-monitoring from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which looks at how thoughts, feelings and actions feed each other.
What this can look like
Something is weighing on you, and nobody knows. Work, money, your health, your parents. You'd rather deal with it alone.
Why it happens
Handling things yourself is a real strength, and it often gets rewarded. But stress you don't talk about doesn't disappear. It leaks out as short answers, poor sleep or checking out at home, and the people around you feel it without knowing why.
How to use it
2 minutes at the end of each day
At the end of each day, write one thing you kept to yourself. Then write who felt the effect anyway: your partner, your kids, your body, your work.
Short on time? One word for what you carried today.
Afterwards, ask yourself
Who is paying for the fact that you don't talk about it?
This tool is one small place to start. You might know what you want to change and still find it hard to do, or hard to put into words what comes up. That's normal. It's a big part of the work in counselling: getting to the bottom of what's happening, so it's easier to say and easier to change.
If this keeps happening
When the same thing keeps coming back, it's usually a pattern rather than a bad week. Understanding what sets it off, and practising a different response, is something we work on often in counselling.
This page is general information. It isn't a diagnosis or a replacement for therapy.
If you're thinking about ending your life or you're in crisis, call or text 9-8-8 in Canada, or call 911.
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