“AIMS”: coping with feeling “overwhelmed”

Click on image to enlarge, or link to pdf of printable page: AIMS Work page
(1/13/14: pdf’s don’t seem to be opening… I’ll see if I can figure that out and fix it)

I call the system “A.I.M.S.”…the “aim” being to develop a kinder, more mindful, accurate perception about how I think, feel and react.

The steps in “AIMS”  include:

• Accept: accepting that I feel this way in the moment (bringing self acceptance and self compassion to the situation)
•  Imagine: What negative outcomes might I be worrying about right now? How did the situation actually turn out? How good was I at predicting? (helped me realize how poor I was at predicting. My worries/predictions were consistently much more negative than actual outcomes. I learned not to believe my own worries from that practice)
•  Measure: how strong is my emotion/feeling right now? How long does it take to dissipate? (helps give perspective that the reaction will pass quite soon)
• Skills: (brings in thinking and reasoning to try to figure out what I know and what I can learn to help cope with various challenging situations)

Using the ideas on these pages…and writing my own reactions down for a few weeks…. really helped me learn to be less reactive and to be calmer and more steady when I found myself  in potentially stressful situations.

Printable pdf of page above:AIMS Cover page: Explanation 
(1/13/14: pdf’s don’t seem to be opening… I’ll see if I can figure that out and fix it)

I keep the card, below, in my purse…to refer to and to remind myself…

printable pdf of card: AIMS: pocket reminder card
(1/13/14: pdf’s don’t seem to be opening… I’ll see if I can figure that out and fix it)

All of the above pages are certainly enough to start out with….

I did create a few more pages, as I got less reactive and wanted to learn more skills/strategies for various situations. I therefore used the following page to try to figure out what skills might be helpful to develop.
Printable pdf copy of developing skills page: AIMS: Developing skills to cope with situations   (1/13/14: pdf’s don’t seem to be opening… I’ll see if I can figure that out and fix it)