We live in a social media society where we all “do it for the gram.” Social media “challenges” have become all the rage from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to the Mannequin Challenge. Everyone jumps in once these go viral. A lot of them have had good messages and encourage awareness by spreading a valuable message. Well there are lesser-known challenges that encourage PERSONAL GROWTH worth practicing that doesn’t have to be as public (unless you want it to be, of course – you can ALWAYS do it for the gram).
Today, I’ll be focusing on a specific challenge that is very therapeutic for conquering phobias, discomforts, anxiety provoking situations, and allow for an opportunity to grow competence and confidence. For lack of a better name, I’ll refer to it as the Exposure Therapy Challenge – It’s a great exercise to practice as an individual, to challenge your friends or children to do, or to encourage our clients to try (but more on that later).
What is Exposure Therapy?
Before I explain what the challenge is, we should define what Exposure Therapy is first. A quick Google search will explain that Exposure Therapy is essentially the act of having a therapy client experiencing a phobia or specific anxiety become gradually more exposed to the source of their angst without causing any danger.
Quick Example
Let’s say you had a phobia of snakes, as many people do. In theory, a therapist may increase your exposure to your phobia by taking the following steps in order over the course of several weeks:
- Talk about the physical details of a snake
- Draw a snake
- View a cartoon images of snakes
- Progress to watching animated cartoons of snakes
- Continue onto realistic drawings of snakes
- Eventually look at images of small sized snakes
- See images of larger snakes
- Finally look at videos of snakes
- Visit a pet store to look at small snakes through the glass window
- Hold a small snake
This is an overly simplified treatment plan, but you get the idea – a gradual increase in exposure. This can be applied to anxiety provoking situations as well on a much more day-to-day scale. More so than with phobias, I want you guys to practice overcoming these day-to-day anxiety provoking situations. You can do that with a PERSONAL CHALLENGE (it actually pairs very nicely with our writing exercises writing exercise post)
Introducing: Exposure Therapy Challenge
Variations of this can be made, but the general idea is simple: every day for a month, you will do something specific that is challenging your anxiety or phobia. For example, my personal anxiety is to ask strangers in public to do something for me. If I’m at the grocery store and someone is standing in front of a shelf I need to get to, you’re more likely to catch me standing there waiting for them to eventually move on their own than you are to see me actually say “excuse me.” It’s in my nature and I just want to improve it. Well on top of that, I’ve recently taken up an interest in photography. Specifically, I’ve been enjoying portrait photography. –
So I’ve decided to participate in my own version of the Exposure Therapy Challenge
Every day for one month, I am going to go into public with my camera to a place where people tend to congregate in public and ask at least 5 people if I can take their portrait. This is no easy task for me. I imagine I’ll be terribly nervous the first few times. But notice, it’s also not a task that I feel is impossible for me to accomplish. I haven’t done this yet because it’s been too cold here in New York, but when I’m done, I’m hoping to have some experience talking to strangers and catching some cool shots (maybe as cool as this one one of me
And please feel free to follow my instagram! I plan on posting the outcome once I start. I doubt I’ll post everything, but maybe you’ll catch some of my favorites and some in my story
Desired Outcome:
I’m hoping this exercise will give me enough exposure to walking up to people (despite my discomfort) and asking them to participate in an activity with me that may seem a little strange. By practicing this over and over, I’m hoping my comfort level will shift from coming up with the guts to ask someone if I can take their picture to calmly asking for their picture and maybe even following it up with a brief and casual conversation. Ideally, this comfort will bleed into different situations.
Who knows, maybe after doing this for a month I’ll actually be able to ask someone at the super market if they’ll politely move over so that I can grab what I need. Or maybe it will help me on a future job interview…or in a social situation that would otherwise be a bit uncomfortable. And maybe the next time I try this challenge, I’ll pick something that seems tough, doable, and would have previously been impossible for me to complete.
Takeaway
Now I ask you:
What do you need exposure to?
What can you challenge yourself to do every day that’s tough but doable?How can you hold yourself accountable?
If you decide to do this, share below what your challenge will be if you feel comfortable. I’m sure it will help inspire other readers! Maybe you should capture it and post it on your social media – let me know if you do! Every time someone does this it’s helping with the mental health stigma