How much of your time and life is spent in worry, fear and anxiety? Worry can be all consuming if you don’t tackle it head on. Some strategies to consider to get started below;
1) examine your negative thinking patterns,
2) explore how worry is limiting your life,
3) what is worry doing to your energy?,
4) how does your worry impact those around you?,
5) What percentage of the time do worries actually happen?
Research says, 85% of What We Worry About Never Happens.
Worrying gives the illusion of control. You think that by imagining all the worst things that could happen, you can have solutions in place beforehand. But the reality is that since you’ll never think of all the possibilities, your worrying work is never done. In fact, worry becomes a habit and can take over your life. According to Kat McGowan in a Psychology Today article, “The weird logic of fretting, many worriers actually think that their concern somehow prevented something bad from happening.”
Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened. Now there’s a study that proves it. This study looked into how many of our imagined calamities never materialize. In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not actually happen. It may be time to take charge of your negative thinking patters. Free yourself from worry by focusing on positivity, gratitude, distraction, and validate all the good in your life. It may be time to let go of worry to improve the quality of your life, attitude and mental/emotional well-being. Hang around positive people, don’t watch the news or at least limit your viewing of it. Not much good is reported to help you not worry.
So, now I will give you something to worry about. How ironic is this?
The stress hormones stress and worry dump into your system shrinks brain mass, lowers your IQ, makes you prone to heart disease, cancer and premature aging, predicts martial problems, family dysfunction, and depression, and makes seniors more likely to develop dementia & Alzheimer’s. Learn to meditate, pray, exercise, listen to music, but mostly, change the script of your inner dialogue. So, what is the point of the brain scans? Worry, stress and anxiety change your brain functioning. You release stress hormones and activate different neurons & receptors which makes the “worry circuit” even stronger ultimately changing your entire physiology. Find a coach, therapist, program to help you master your mind and free yourself from worry.
