How to Worry Less

The issue of worrying too much is something that many people face. Some personality types seem to worry more than others, but a lot of everyday feelings of worry come from our environment and what we've been taught. In this article, I'll show you ways of decreasing the side of worrying that you can control.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Desire to decrease worry and unnecessary fears in life

1. First, a major aspect of decreasing worry in your life is controlling what goes into your brain. A lot of your thought process comes from who you associate with, what you read, and what you watch on television. Even though you may not be aware of it on a surface level, too much negative input can cause underlying fear and worry to enter your life.

2. Take the time to listen consciously to what you're saying on a daily basis. There is a psychological aspect of "what you expect is what you get." If you talk about your worries more than the good things in your life, from your own perspective it will seem like more bad things happen to you than good. If you focus on the good, more good seems to happen to you. This really works, especially if you make an effort to do this and then look back months and years down the road.

3. Frame any challenge in your life in a way where you can try to solve the problem instead of dwelling on it. Obviously there are some situations that you can't control, but you do have a choice in how you react to them.

Tips & Warnings

• This is a process and may not be something that comes to you overnight. You just have to keep working at it, but the effort is worth it.
• I've heard before that "worriers" should take a time of day to just worry with focus, supposedly to get all the worrying out of their system. If you've ever tried this, it almost seems to make things worse. It's because you're feeding the fearful side of your life instead of the side that has hope.

Resources

• Life Skills/Success Resources
• Index of Cougar1002's Articles (Sorted by Topic)
• Cougar1002's Author's Blog (For Updates/News/Latest Articles)

[Created2Share]

on 11/5/2008 Very good information. I find myself talking negative more than I should and am dedicated to stopping this communication with myself and see how much easier it is to handle the cares of this world around me. I am my own worst critic. Ouch! Thanks for the article.

[MidniteWriter]

on 5/5/2008 The messages we send to ourselves are often far worse than we'd tell a friend or relative. Something to consider! Thanks for your article!