The premise of this exercise is that in any difficult situation, there are factors we can control and factors we cannot control. There’s also all the stuff in between, where we can kind of push it in a particular direction but don’t have the final say over how it turns out. (Other people’s behavior often fits into this category.)

Anxiety often comes up when we focus disproportionately on the factors we can’t control while neglecting to think about the things we actually can change. Often, especially during times like these, those are the basic self-care things: sleep, hydration, food, moving our bodies. Yeah, that stuff.

Unfortunately, this becomes a feedback loop—anxiety tends to perpetuate itself, keeping us focused on the big scary things we have little or no control over, and making it even harder to focus on things like drinking water.

This activity can help us refocus.