9 Ways To Stop Worrying

Now that the holidays are over and many people are back to their normal lives, it may be difficult to keep the spirit of the holidays high. Negative emotions like fear, worry, anxiety, depression, stress, and anger may begin to emerge once more. Even worse, the holidays may have brought little or no relief from these energy destroyers.

My friend, Dr. Marty Rossman has given us wonderful advice about worry in his book, The Worry Solution. In the book, he advises us to list our worries on a sheet of paper and then sort them into three categories – those we are sure we can change, those we are sure we cannot change, and those that we are unsure as to whether we can change or not. Each worry is also assigned a priority of 1 to 10.

He then advises us to create a plan for us to change what we can change, and drop the worries that we cannot change. For those we are unsure of, we should take our time to consider what actions we can take to either dismiss them as worries we cannot change or take action to make a desirable change.

More recent research in the art of worrying has produced 9 ways to stop worrying. These 9 ways to stop worrying appeared on the Huffington Post in October, 2013.

1. Set aside a designated “worry time”. The article recommends setting aside a 30-minute period of time for worry and quotes research that helped people put aside their worries at any other time but their “worry time.”
2. Kick your online addiction. We saw something about this in the article Using WillPower To Curb Your Technology Addiction.
3. Be mindful. Notice when worrisome thoughts arise and disengage from the emotional response of worry.
4. Accept the worry – and then move on. If you get caught up in worry, or worry about worry, simply try a different tactic – acceptance.
5. Write down your worries. This is actually part of Dr. Rossman’s prescription described above.
6. Cut yourself some slack – have a piece of chocolate once in a while and forget about worrying about your health. Jon Kabat-Zinn says that as long as you are alive, there is more right with you than wrong.
7. Keep your hands busy. Do some creative physical activity to keep your mind off of your worries.
8. Make time for meditation. Affective neuroscience, a new science pioneered by Richie Davidson, has shown that meditation reduces anxiety levels and has wholesome effects on the regions of the brain that control emotions and thinking as well as worry. I suggest you start with the video shown below.
9. Get you heart pumping. Exercise increases serotonin and reduces oxidative stress. [Read More…]

For number 8, watch the following video for your benefit. Enjoy it often, then proceed to Second Mindfulness Meditation Practice.

This Book Will Help You Stop Worrying