Creative Contracting with Alternative Handwriting
My dog Clancy is the ultimate worry wart. He is always alert and on guard reacting to any new noise and jumping up and barking as soon as there is a sign that someone is approaching the door of the house. If one of his family members enter it takes him a few minutes to calm down from alerting everyone to potential danger and then experiencing intense excitement about the people he loves returning home. It’s a LOT! When I think of addressing my internal worry wart, I often think of him, how he is trying to do a good job protecting everyone but not knowing when to stop. To address my own worry wart, I’ve found writing helps.
Writing has long been known to be an effective means of processing difficult things. The use of creative writing is less utilized as a therapeutic method but almost every writing course, book, workshop I’ve been to talks about the emotional process of creative writing and often incorporates exercises to help the process which are on par with many exercises I use in therapy practice. Over the years I’ve begun to compile and re-creative creative writing exercises to be more explicitly therapeutic and therapy exercise into a creative writing process. The result has been, in my experience, a means of processing difficult emotions and mental health issues which leads to better, more descriptive, insightful and creative writing.
Here is an exercise I have developed to address generalized anxiety by engaging with the part of ourselves that holds on to our anxious ways of being and thinking, usually because part of us thinks it is the best way to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, to avoid making mistakes and to be prepared for potential upcoming crisis, disasters, failures, etc. This exercise incorporates alternate handwriting in order to access the non-linear, sometimes non-rational side of our brain to get a better understanding of why we might persist in thought and behaviour patterns that appear to be causing more harm than good.
WORRY WART Employee Evaluation & Contract
Overview: Interview your worry wart- the part of you that is constantly running ‘worst case scenarios’ through your mind, keeping you awake at night to run through every possible outcome of a situation. The part that doesn’t want to you to relax when things are going well, for fear that you’ll be unprepared for an upcoming problem, disaster, etc. Think of this next part as your employee and perform a job evaluation. After reviewing this interview, you will consider what changes need to be make in your worry wart’s job description, whether it needs a promotion, change of shift schedule, demotion, or needs to take more holiday time, etc. Then you will create a contract with your ‘employee’ that reflects these changes.
Start by giving your “Worry Wart” a name.
Example: Julia
Write out each question below with your dominant hand and then answer, as if your “Worry Wart” is speaking, with your non-dominant hand:
- Can you describe your job to me. What are you responsible for?
Example: I try to ensure you don’t miss any possible problems or forget them. I make sure you dig into the depths of feelings about these problems.
- What parts of your job do you like?
Example: I like the one or one attention and time to be listened to.
- What are your hours?
Example: I work mostly at night when there are no distractions.
- What parts of your job don’t you like?
Example: The hours aren’t great and sometimes I’d like to chat about things that aren’t scary or worrisome.
- How do you feel you’re doing at your job?
Example: I feel like I’m doing better than I used to. I feel like I can accomplish more in a short time. I feel heard so I don’t have to work every night.
- If you didn’t have to do this job, what would you rather do?
Example: I’d like to review happy moments of the day and talk about happy dreams.
- Do you think your person could manage without you in that role? Why or why not?
Example: I’m not sure. I can’t really imagine never worrying. I don’t know if she would know what is really important if I didn’t tell her.
- Would you be willing to try doing things differently, like more of what you’d rather do?
Example: I could try spending some time on happy memories, maybe that would give me a better idea about what is important to worry about because I’ll have more data about the day/life, etc.
Write your response to your worry wart in the form of a employee performance evaluation using your dominant hand. Include things you appreciate about your worry wart and things that you’d like to see changed.
Performance Evaluation
Performance Evaluation for: Example: Julia
Position: Worry Wart
General comments
Example: Julia has shown her commitment to her job of keeping her employer safe by utilizing the best times to deliver her messages. Julia is starting to show flexibility by being willing to back off when she feels her message has been received.
Areas of success
Example: Julia has shown her commitment to her job of keeping her employer safe by utilizing the best times to deliver her messages. Julia is starting to show flexibility by being willing to back off when she feels her message has been received.
Areas needing improvement
Example: Julia could use her communication and observation skills more broadly by bringing attention to other areas of life that would be beneficial to notice, not only the worst possible scenarios or concerns. This could also happen during daytime hours. Julia could get better at focusing her communications at times when her employer has the tools or resources to act on these concerns.
Recommendations
Example: I recommend Julia expand and diversify her duties and start training by focusing primarily on the areas she has previously overlooked, knowing that her skill at observation for problems are honed enough to that she will not likely miss them when they come and need attending to if she chooses to spend more time focusing on other things.
Print and fill out the following contract between yourself and your “Worry Wart” implementing the aspects recommended in your employee performance evaluation. Have someone else witness the contract. Set a date for the next performance review to evaluate how things are going under this new contract.
CONTRACT/AGREEMENT
Between_________________Co. Ltd and __________________
[your name] [worry wart]
Job title ______________________________________________________
Hours of work________________________________
Duties ________________________________________________________________________
Duties not included______________________________________________________________
-pay, etc. ______________________________________________________________________
To be reviewed _______________________________________[date]
_________________________________ ____________________________________
Your signature Date
_________________________________
Worry Wart name
_________________________________
Witness signature
For more exercises, sign up for my workshop series starting at the end of February 2025.
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