West end girl, planning for your worst self & doing the next best thing
sent by DR JESSAMY | 13 NOVEMBER, 2025
Happy 3 good things Thursday!
Here are this week’s three good things:
1. Something I loved: West End Girl
I’m loving Lily Allen’s new album, it’s so good, it’s so relatable and I really admire her and feel for her - sharing what you’re going through feels exposing, but it allows others in and lets you see that you’re not alone in what you’re going through. When you keep things quiet there’s so much more room for shame. This album is a reminder of how difficult relationships can be and that you never know what’s going on under the surface of other people’s lives.
2. Something I'm thinking about: Plan for your worst self
This week in therapy sessions a theme kept coming up - when we’re over capacity, it’s so much harder to manage our emotions and act in the way we want. It made me think how do we avoid this? Then I realised a better question is how do we support ourselves during difficult times as the reality is they are around more than the easy periods.
We normally plan for our ‘best self’, but to give ourselves the best chance we need to plan for our ‘worst self’ - the person we are when life is too much, rather than the person we hope to be. We can then put things in place for how we actually feel when we have a nightmare week – whether it’s mentally slowing down, getting more sleep, bringing self-compassion (rather than self-criticism) or asking for help from friends or family - it’s important to think what works best for you.
3. Something I'm trying to put into practice: What's the next best thing?
When I’m working, I like to get out for a quick walk round the park at lunchtime, but with time off over half-term, this week has been particularly busy. Instead of giving up on it, I’ve tried asking myself what’s the next best thing?
When we can’t do things in the way we want, often we don’t do it at all, but something is better than nothing so instead I’ve just walked round the block. It’s 10 minutes instead of 20 minutes, but I’ve got outside and done something for me and this simple mindset change has rippled into doing other things.
A question for you:
Before you go back to what you were doing, take a moment to think - what does your worst self need on those weeks where everything becomes too much and how can you plan in advance to put this into action?
Thanks for reading. What are your 3 good things this week?
Dr Jessamy
- Clinical Psychologist | Author and | Speaker
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Thanks for reading. You can get more Practical psychology tips from my 3 good things newsletter.
Every other Thursday I share:
Something I’ve loved - a recommendation for you
Something I’ve been thinking about - an idea or topic that’s been on my mind
Something I’m trying out - a small practice I’ve added to my week
I’ll also leave you with a question or experiment so you can bring these ideas into your own life.