Persons who are anxiety-prone can function better when they have few decisions to make. Some people have to do a lot of research ahead of time while others seem to trust their instincts. For me, it all depends on the decisions. Some decisions require no thought at all. The decision is obvious. Others require thought. For example, does it require a decision to return your cart to the cart corral? (Apparently, it does and lots of people make the wrong one if carts all over the parking lot are any indication.) Does it require a decision to tell the truth? Does it require a decision to be nice? A lot of what we encounter in our life shouldn’t require any decision at all.  Good habits reduce the number of decisions we have to make. The few decisions, the less the anxiety. I thought I would share some of my own decision-making options. Here are the decisions that are on autopilot for me:

• Making the bed
• Reading my bible
• Prayer
• Daily exercise
• Cleaning up and getting my “face” on.
• Keeping the house mostly clutter-free and usually presentable.

I should add that not any of the above is necessarily performed at their highest level every day. If I’m out-of-town, if the obligations of the day are such that I’m leaving the house the first thing in the morning, then I have to juggle some things around. But I know “me” very well. In fact, I quit writing this post right in the middle because I had not exercised today. For some reason, I was feeling just a little anxious. I went downstairs and got on my treadmill/elliptical for forty minutes. I think most of us function better when we keep our lives more structured, in other words, fewer decisions. We can still be spontaneous. In fact, we’re more apt to feel spontaneous when we don’t have to fret over so many decisions. For example, children whose lives are chaotic and without structure never feel as safe as those for whom there are regular routines. To a child structure and routine feel “safe”. All children need to feel “safe”.

And structure equals safety for many of us. 

So the point of this post is if you want to make fewer decisions, make more decisions automatic. Think about your day. What are some things you are making decisions about that you could make automatic or at least make easier? For some people having their meals planned out for the week works. Other people put out their clothes the night before. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when there are lots of decisions to be made.  This isn’t necessarily a post about simplifying our lives although most of us could afford to do that and certainly reducing the number of daily decisions does simplify our day but it can also improve our mood overall. Hope you have a wonderful day and God bless. The post, “How to put some decisions. on auto-pilot” appeared first on thegiftofdepression.com.