Like many people I tread that line between normal self-doubt and pathological anxiety. There’s a an exercise I have done which I found in a book called ‘Flourish’ by Marty Seligman. It’s to write down three nice things that happened to you at the end of every day. There’s something about the process of writing out that’s grounding and the words stay there on the page to remind you. It’s just a little thing to do but oddly comforting.
I really hate self-help books in general but Flourish is more about the study of how people gain mental resilience rather than the things that break you. It’s interesting. Obviously I forget to do the writing down thing until I feel a bit wobbly but that’s my problem :?
The other thing I learned is that anxiety and negativity feed themselves physiologically – I don’t know you but you’re obviously an athlete. You’re probably a fine balance between adrenaline and cortisol (a bit is good for being excited, getting you moving etc but long term elevated levels is the stuff of clinical anxiety and depression) and lots of athlete’s endorphins which help your mood. If you get out of balance (the endorphins aren’t canceling out the effects of adrenaline/cortisol) it can get to feel pretty scary – the negative voices all start shouting and then you feel more wobbly and so on in a nasty self-reinforcing cycle.
On the up side, it gives you a second way of helping yourself. You can tackle the physical stuff as well as negative thought processes to help break the cycle. (I went on an anxiety management course prescribed by my GP and was surprised at how much I learned).
Hope this is helpful – and that you’ve got enough ammo from the list to give the bits of yourself giving you grief a good talking to :-)
[/url] 
[/url] 
[/url]
[/url]