Did you know that you may be spending about five percent of your waking time on worrying?
Yes, consciously or subconsciously, you worry about a lot of things in your life—family and relationships, jobs and schools, health and money.
Yes, a small percentage of people even have anxiety and panic disorders. Essentially, they worry about multiple problems at the same time. If you are a chronic worrier, you may be spending half of your waking hours worrying about one thing or another—even though they may be totally out of your control, such as the weather, among other things.
You may feel there is nothing you can do about your worries—and so you just don’t do anything about it.
However, you need to change that unhealthy attitude about worries. Worrying is unproductive. Don’t spend the best years of your life worrying about things that may never happen in your life. Worse, don’t give up on yourself. There is everything you can do to stop worrying. Claim back the life you rightly deserve.
Worries can do harm to your health, such as causing you headaches, lack of concentration, poor sleep, and low self–esteem.
Is worrying worth the effort?
Studies have shown that as you grow older, you would worry less, not more. Is it because as you grow older, things get better and so you worry less? Or is it because as you grow older, you simply realize that worrying is not worth it? Or is it because you have grown older and wiser?
Whatever, these are the things you can do to stop worrying yourself sick:
- Don’t strive to suppress your worrying thoughts. The harder you try, the more persistent they become. Instead of avoiding them, confronting your worrying thoughts may surprisingly alleviate your worries.
- Focus on your worries. Imagine the worst scenario. Then, try to think of positive solutions to your worries. You may get worse before you get better.
- Jot down all your worrying thoughts. Seeing your worries in writing, you may see them in a different perspective, that is, they may look less “real” or even “worthless” to you.
- Do something about your worries, especially if they are real and require some action to be taken. Procrastination only prolongs the worrying. This strategy applies to all legitimate worries.
- Talk about your worries with your friends. Discussing your worries may deflate them.
- Learn to live in the present moment, which is essentially full awareness and appreciation of life. In other words, you are simply “experiencing” the perturbing conditions of your environment, instead of “thinking” about them. Thinking causes needless worries and negative thoughts. To achieve the goal of living in the present moment, focus on doing something ordinary, thereby instrumental in quieting the distracted mind. Once your mind remains in the present moment, distracting thoughts will just float by, and you just observe them without becoming absorbed in them. As a result of your detachment or non-involvement, you now have the opportunity to learn why and how you have your mental static and emotional reactions. One of the most effective ways of training to live in the present moment is meditation.
Why Make Yourself Crazy? provides 300 strategies to deal with your stress and worries.
Secret of Healing Meditation: You can heal yourself of any physical, emotional, and spiritual problems through quieting your mind.
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
