Posts tagged worry

1. Remind yourself that worrying doesn’t stop things happening. Things will happen – or not happen –anyway.

2. Recognise that “What ifs” don’t usually help with problem solving. It’s better to use logic, and brain storm for solutions. Take control of your emotions by using rational thinking.

3. Motivate yourself by something other than worrying. Take a break and do something fun, and then go back to your work again. That positive approach will reap more benefits.  

4. Face your fears – and do the things that you worry about. The thought is often much worse than the actual thing you fear.

5. Ask yourself “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Then, “What are the chances that it will happen? Then “Will you survive it, if it happens, in the end?” Usually, that helps to move us from an extreme and irrational way of thinking to a more realistic, and reasonable way if thinking.

6. Teach yourself a range of relaxation strategies – and then concentrate on them instead of on your different fears. Or, adopt a mindful approach – and keep your focus on “right now”.

1. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best. In reality, few of our worries actually become a reality. However, if you prepare in advance for things going wrong, you’ll have strategies available to cope and survive.

2.  Write a list of everything you think you need to do, and then tick them off as you work through the list. That will help you feel more organised, and much more in control.

3. Do something to distract yourself – so your anxious thoughts don’t grow bigger in your mind.

4. Share your feelings with someone who understands and cares. They’ll offer you support – and you’ll gain perspective, too.

5. Confront the problem head often. It’s often the uncertainty that worries us the most – so face up to your worries – and take the steps you can.

6. Choose to do something that help you to calm you – like listening to your ipod or chilling with a friend.

7. Choose to be thankful. There are so many things to be grateful for. Compose a list of those, and you’ll find your worries fade. 

1. Try to keep things in proportion. Don’t keep reviewing, and reflecting, on your worries.

2. Try to be balanced and reasonable. Recognise that we all feel bad at times, and have to cope with a whole range of emotions.

3. Think of ways to distract yourself so you don’t keep returning to ingrained, and negative, thought patterns

4. Do things that help you to unwind and relax (like reading, exercising or talking to a friend.)

5. Be aware of your own rhythms and patterns. There are certain times (such as when we’re tired or hungry) when we tend to slip over into negativity. Just recognising this can help us gain perspective.

6. Know your personal triggers, and avoid them if you can.

7. Try and get some exercise as it helps lower your stress chemicals levels and helps you to cope with an onslaught of bad feelings.

8. Let go of the past, and forgive yourself and others. If you keep on looking back it will rob you of the present.

9. Don’t be self-critical, or put yourself down. This is the time to be kind and understanding.

10. Remember that tomorrow is another day – and hang on to the hope that you can have a happy life.

1. Relax your breathing. Take deliberate slow, deep breaths, and feel the tension begin to subside.

2. Clear your mind of disturbing thoughts. Remind yourself of all your strengths, of those occasions when you’ve coped in the past, and of things you still have to look forward to.

3. Shut off the critical parent in your head. We all have weaknesses and make mistakes. Don’t abandon, attack, or reject yourself. You need to support, and to nurture, yourself.

4. Practice self-care. Temporarily step back from the stressful situation. Maybe listen to some music, or message a friend, or play with your pet, or go for a walk.

5. Respond – don’t react. You don’t have to do anything right now. Take a moment to take control of your feelings and your thoughts. Then assess the situations, and think through different options.

6.  You may have to put up protective boundaries. We often don’t have the energy to give at these times – so withdraw from people who would drain your energy.

7.  A burden shared is a burden halved. Share how you feel with someone who cares. It’s good to ask for help when you’re worried or afraid.

1. Be honest with yourself and admit what you’re afraid of. Burying your fears won’t make them disappear.

 2. Try and be specific about what exactly it is that creates the fear. For example, perhaps it isn’t exams – it’s the fear of failing and not being seen as being “good enough”.  

3.  Try and identify situations in the past that are contributing to the fear you feel now. For example, were you bitten by a dog as an infant – and now you’re terrified of any kind of dog.

4.  Think of the worst thing that could happen (related to your fear). Then, on a scale of 1-10, assess how likely it is that that will happen. Then, ask yourself what is likely to happen. Next, think of the things you would do to cope, if you were right - and your worst fear came true. Think of as many coping strategies as possible. The more options you have, the less anxious you are likely to feel.

5. Deliberately keep your focus on the present. Let go of mistakes and hurts from the past, and enjoy what is good about your life right now.

1. Other peoples’ expectations of you. At the end of the day, it’s your life not their life - so just be yourself and set,and go for, your own goals.

2. What other people say and do. It’s not up to us to control other people, or to change how they act, or to make their decisions.

3. Expecting perfection. It’s unrealistic to aim for perfection. You’ll just be disappointed and discouraged all the time.

4. Getting it wrong. We all make mistakes in our journey through this life. That’s simply part of learning, and being normal and human.

6. Fitting in. Although social skills matter, and it’s good to think of others, you also need to be yourself - a special, unique individual. Beware - conformity can kill individuality.

7. Being right. This is highly over-rated and can cause a lot of stress. If you’re confident and real you don’t need to prove you’re right!

8. Life being out of control. At the end of the day, there’s not much we can control – except our own reactions and our attitudes to problems. So change what you can – and then relax and enjoy life.   

1. Check your nutrition. Sometimes high levels of anxiety are caused by a magnesium or potassium deficiency.

2. Pay attention to your caffeine levels. Coffee, tea and chocolate all contain reasonable levels of caffeine. This can make you jittery, or increase your feelings of anxiety.

3. Try meditation and mindfulness. These help to keep you focused on the here and now, to slow your heartbeat and breathing down, as well as helping to relax your mind.

4.  Work on maintain a healthy self-esteem. Many people who feel anxious, stressed or depressed are actually suffering from low self-esteem.

5. Find a trusted sounding board, and vent your feelings to them – but make sure it’s someone who understands and cares.

6. Exercise – This releases endorphins, those feel-good hormones, which help reduce our feelings of anxiety.

7. Distract yourself. Take your mind off your worries by doing other things that require concentration, and a focused state of mind.

8. Treat yourself. Give yourself a mood lifter by hanging out with friends, buying something that you love, or doing something that is fun.   

1. Remind yourself that worrying doesn’t stop things happening. Things will happen – or not happen –anyway.

2. Recognise that “What ifs” don’t usually help with problem solving. It’s better to use logic, and brain storm for solutions. Take control of your emotions by using rational thinking.

3. Motivate yourself by something other than worrying. Take a break and do something fun, and then go back to your work again. That positive approach will reap more benefits.  

4. Face your fears – and do the things that you worry about. The thought is often much worse than the actual thing you fear.

5. Ask yourself “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Then, “What are the chances that it will happen? Then “Will you survive it, if it happens, in the end?” Usually, that helps to move us from an extreme and irrational way of thinking to a more realistic, and reasonable way if thinking.

6. Teach yourself a range of relaxation strategies – and then concentrate on them instead of on your different fears. Or, adopt a mindful approach – and keep your focus on “right now”.

1. Confront your fears: There’s often a fear of the unknown, and trying to define that fear can help you to overcome it. By facing whatever it is, you may find you know what to do about the situation. You can begin to think about how you might cope with it, what you can do, and who might help you, if necessary.

2. Talk it over: Discussing things with others can help to throw up a possible course of action or solution, which you wouldn’t have been able to formulate on your own.

3. Write a list: Try writing a list of what’s troubling you. Use statements, rather than questions. Instead of, ‘What will happen if I don’t get there on time?’ say, ‘I am worried that I won’t get there on time’. This focuses on precisely what the fear is. Another constructive way to put your fears into perspective is to try writing down the reasons why something bad might not happen. This may help you to see more realistically which situations are worthy of worry and which are not.

4. Take action: There is often something you can do about a situation you feel anxious about. Consider each preoccupying thought, one by one, and then decide whether there is something that could be done

5. Try to establish control: Confine your problems to a certain time and place. For this to work, it’s important to be strict, and not to let them intrude on your thoughts at other times. It might be helpful to visualise a box to place them in, which you may open at a later date or time. Some people set aside something like 30 minutes a day for worrying, taking the phrase ‘I’ll worry about it later’ literally.

6. Relaxation and visualisation: Relaxation exercises often focus on replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. This could involve imagining yourself in a pleasant setting, such as a beach, a nice room or a garden. You could visualise your worries as physical objects that can be discarded, such as stones or rocks you could heave into the distance.

7. Physical activity: Exercise is excellent because it can change the focus from your mind to your body. It relieves tension and uses up adrenalin.

8. Medication:  If extreme worrying turns into a state of continuous anxiety, your doctor may prescribe antidepressants or minor tranquillisers. These should only be used for the briefest possible time, because they may have side effects and can be addictive. They can do nothing to change the root cause of your problem, but they can tide you over the worst of a crisis until a different form of help, such as counselling or psychotherapy, can be put in place.

Source: http://www.mind.org.uk/help/medical_and_alternative_care/how_to_stop_worrying (Abridged)

1. Try to clearly identify the exact cause of your anxiety. It’s easier to deal with our tendency to worry if we know what is bothering us.

2. Face your worries and anxieties head on. Imagine a worse case scenario and think about what you would do if that happened. In reality, it’s actually unlikely to happen – and grasping that should lessen your anxiety and fear.

3.  Think through the different things that happened in your past. What has caused you to live in constant dread? Are you reliving fears that belong in the past, and are really unrelated to what’s happening right now?

4. Recognise that worrying won’t change the situation – so change your focus to thinking of solutions.

5. Try and take a few steps to increase your control so you don’t feel so powerless, overwhelmed and trapped.

6. Remind yourself of all your different strengths and gifts – as you’re competent and capable in many areas.

1.    Create a “worry period.” Choose a set time and place for worrying. It should be the same every day (e.g. In the living room from 5:00 to 5:20 p.m.) and early enough that it won’t make you anxious right before bedtime. During your worry period, you’re allowed to worry about whatever’s on your mind. The rest of the day, however, is a worry-free zone.

2.    Postpone your worry. If an anxious thought or worry comes into your head during the day, make a brief note of it on paper and postpone it to your worry period. Remind yourself that you’ll have time to think about it later, so there’s no need to worry about it right now. Save it for later and continue to go about your day.

3.    Go over your “worry list” during the worry period. Reflect on the worries you wrote down during the day. If the thoughts are still bothering you, allow yourself to worry about them, but only for the amount of time you’ve specified for your worry period. If the worries don’t seem important any more, cut your worry period short and enjoy the rest of your day.

Postponing worrying is effective because it breaks the habit of dwelling on worries in the present moment. Yet there’s no struggle to suppress the thought or judge it. You simply save it for later. As you develop the ability to postpone your anxious thoughts, you’ll start to realize that you have more control over your worrying than you think.

Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm

Worrying is usually focused on the future—on what might happen and what you’ll do about it. The centuries-old practice of mindfulness can help you break free of your worries by bringing your attention back to the present. This strategy is based on, first, observing and then letting your worries and anxieties go. It can help you identify where your thinking is causing problems, while helping you get in touch with your emotions.

·         Acknowledge and observe your anxious thoughts and feelings. Don’t try to ignore, fight, or control them like you usually would. Instead, simply observe them as if from an outsider’s perspective, without reacting or judging.

·         Let your worries go. Notice that when you don’t try to control the anxious thoughts that pop up, they soon pass, like clouds moving across the sky. It’s only when you engage your worries that you get stuck.

·         Stay focused on the present. Pay attention to the way your body feels, the rhythm of your breathing, your ever-changing emotions, and the thoughts that drift across your mind. If you find yourself getting stuck on a particular thought, bring your attention back to the present moment.

Using mindfulness meditation to stay focused on the present is a simple concept, but it takes practice to reap the benefits. At first, you’ll probably find that your mind keeps wandering back to your worries. Try not to get frustrated. Each time you draw your focus back to the present, you’re reinforcing a new mental habit that will help you break free of the negative worry cycle.

Source: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/anxiety_self_help.htm