Coping with Chaos Workbook

Facilitator Reproducible Guided Self-Exploration Activities

One thing that all people can count on in the twenty-first century is living with chaos. Chaos refers to a state of confusion in your life, the experience of random or unpredictable occurrences, or a lack of order in your daily life, space, and belongings. Chaos can be seen in workplace changes, cell phones ringing and people constantly beset with interruptions, the barrage of new information, thousands of choices, new and improved product ideas, new technologies that arrive daily, and new family structures. Often a family member volunteers or is forced to take on a new role, such as caregiving. These are just a few of the many ways people are experiencing increased chaos in their lives, which leaves them feeling irritated, frustrated, exhausted, angry, overwhelmed, or confused.

Many people are interested in returning to the days when life was simpler, calmer, more controllable, and more predictable. People want their lives to be full of reliable and predictable events, people, and things. Instead, they feel like they are losing their sense of purpose, control, and predictability, and the result of these feelings is a sense of exasperation and weariness.

People often ask, “Why worry about chaos? There’s nothing you can do about it!” The fact is that people can control the chaos in their lives. It can be quite liberating to realize that chaos, although unsettling, need not be as frustrating as people believe. They can learn to define patterns of chaos and redirect their energies and abilities.

This workbook aims to provide people with the right lens to see the patterns in the chaos in their lives. This workbook will show participants that although chaos can be frustrating and stressful, redirecting it can enrich lives and provide a sense of meaning and purpose.

The activities are divided into four chapters to help you identify and select assessments easily and quickly:

• Chapter 1: Disorganization
• This chapter helps participants explore how a lack of organization in personal and professional life leads to feeling a sense of chaos.
• Chapter 2: Control of Chaos
• This chapter helps participants explore how well they can control the effects of chaos through limiting distractions, staying organized, and maintaining influence in their lives despite outside forces.
• Chapter 3: Juggling Multiple Roles
• This chapter helps participants explore their effectiveness in juggling multiple roles and finding balance among their roles.
• Chapter 4: Time-Pressure
• This chapter helps participants identify and explore the impact of poor time-management skills on their overall level of life chaos.

All guided activities are fully reproducible for use with your clients/participants.

This workbook is also available in PDF eBook format, making it simple to store on your computer or mobile device and access with a PDF viewer. The PDF format allows you to easily print copies of the activities and worksheets during therapy and counselling sessions.