untonuggan | A brain weasel strategy I have found very effective (for my brain weasels)

So I have the brain weasels of "you must be working/productive all of the time or you have no worth."

This is a very challenging brain weasel to have when I do not have a job because of health issues, and frequently what I need to be doing is *less things* and doing them more wisely (taking breaks, good body posture, less frantic-anxiety-pace) so that I can actually *do more things*. This is harder to do when my brain weasels are chuntering in the background about work/worth.

I have tried various strategies about how *really* this initial thing is not true, that work = / = worth, but in the throes of it does not help at all.

What does help, long term, for me is to use feminism, etc. to redefine the definition of work. Then when my brain weasels yell at me, somehow feminism > brain weasel shaming.

For example:

If I am crafting and enjoying myself and the weasels say I'm not being productive, in addition to telling them I am *making something* if they get antsy because it is *fun* or whatever I tell them they are devaluing traditional women's work

If I am doing things necessary to take care of my body, such as epsom salt baths, resting (incl. reading, playing games, chatting online, fun but relaxing things, etc.), I tell them things like how they are blinded by capitalism and ableist and short-sighted as how can I do things tomorrow without doing my self care and that self care IS work.

etc.

Maybe the cultural mores that say we *should not speak of raceism and other -isms* which are ultimately rather harmful society-wide are actually helping my internal brain-functioning. Whatever the case, I know the intellectualism of things does not help everyone but is a great thing for me. Offering it as a thing for those who might find it useful for themselves; adding a caveat that offering unsolicited anxiety-cures to people with anxiety is not (often) helpful particularly during actual anxiety attacks.

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alexseanchai

Win.

jb_slasher

Epic win! :)

kittydesade

... I've actually been having this problem for the last six months or so, or at least ever since I got back to full productivity. I'm going to try this!

yvi

Good!

I am, unfortunately, very familiar with that particular brain weasel.

lavendertook

Yes indeed. (-:

It's the entropy weasel that is being more active with me lately: "Things are falling apart--fix them before they explode because you don't have much time left being mortal and all!!!!" This gets ratcheted up by any failing piece of technology or household infrastructure--and because we have so many now in general, there's always something failing every few weeks--yay technology! Must make it shut up.

vintagewitch

This is a great way to look at it!

This is really helpful for me, particularly in terms of setting boundaries around the "you're an organizer! That means you work ROUND THE CLOCK on xyz justice issue" attitude at a lot of nonprofits. No, actually, because that does terrible things to people and I don't want to burn out.

So it works great for both internal brain weasels and external ones (at least in my specific case).

anke

I find the act of labelling those kinds of thoughts "brainweasels" alone helps me, at least a bit. It's easier to ignore nasty things that something that is not me "says" than to ignore things I tell myself.

green_knight

Same here. And not only does everyone know that weasels are arseholes, they also have a very limited vision. Weasels don't understand complexity.

phlox

Sounds like a potentially very good strategy! I think I've tried similar things sometimes, but hadn't identified it as a what I am doing--nor had I done it quite so clearly and deliberately. I think the clarity might make it more effective!