We all know the worry wart--someone who seems to be worried about something or other all the time and spends his/her life constantly dreading what might come to pass in their future.
They worry about just about anything under the sun from personal problems to what is happening in the world every day.
Maybe you are one of them.
Do you constantly think about "what if" scenarios.
What if I lose my job? What if I get swine flu? What if I can,t pay the bills? There are an endless number of things to worry about and real worry warts have no trouble in keeping their minds fully occupied with them.
The media is full of stories and pictures of wars, disasters, economic troubles and climate change problems.
There is absolutely no shortage of things to worry about.
Some of us can lose a lot of sleep while we worry during the night.
The net result is a serious deterioration in both our physical and mental health in many cases.
Go to the medical literature and you will find all kinds of evidence of worry related medical problems which afflict people.
Worry can even contribute to high blood pressure and heart disease --and that's just one more thing to worry about.
Fortunately there are some things that can be done to help the chronic worrier.
1.
Write down a list of your worries.
Seeing them on paper in itself can make them less worrisome since they can be analysed to determine what relevance they actually have.
Some worries may be related to something you should do but have not yet gotten around to.
Yes you do need to get your income tax form filed on time.
Don,t worry and procrastinate about it.
Just start on it right now and banish the worry.
Yes you might get cancer and die from it.
There is nothing you can do about this so it is totally unproductive to worry about it.
Banish it from your mind and refuse to think about it anymore.
Go through your written list of worry subjects and start right now take action on those you can control.
Tick off the worries which you have absolutely no way to control and banish them from your list, and from your mind.
Any time one of them comes to mind just pass it on by and refuse to contemplate it.
Totally let go of worries you can do nothing about.
2.
It is never as bad as you thought it might be.
Even if one of your worries comes to pass you will always find that it is not the horror that you had imagined.
When the problem becomes real you will find that you can handle it quite well.
Most of us are actually quite good at handling real problems.
It's the imaginary problems that we need to stop worrying about.
3.
Get rid of that sense of urgency.
Worriers tend to have the feeling that they need to clear up this problem right here and now.
They feel that if they don,t get an immediate solution then something bad is going to happen.
We need to realise that this type of urgency rarely exists in reality.
It is best to decide whether you really need to get an answer to this problem right now or if it is better to focus on something you can do to make life easier at the present time.
Put the worries away and do something enjoyable and restful right now.
Listen to your favorite music while you relax and just enjoy the moment.
4.
Talk to someone about your worries.
a good friend or family member can listen while you get it all off your chest and will be able to make suggestions as to what you need to do to feel better.
It is a known fact that others can usually see your problems much more clearly than you do yourself and can help you by talking about them.
5.
Accept your own limitations.
We all have certain abilities and are better at some things than at others.
Some of us are manual workers whilst others do better with using their mind to produce results.
We also need to realise that the outcome of many things is uncertain and that worrying that a bad outcome may be coming is totally unproductive.
It is usually just as likely that a good outcome will result from any situation we can think of.
We simply must accept the fact that uncertainty exists in nearly every facet of our lives.
Until an event actually takes place we have no way to be certain of what the outcome will be.
Accept this uncertainty and simply go with the things that you actually can control and enjoy whilst refusing to think about those you have no control over.
Anxiety and worry need not control your life.
Take positive action to end it and you will have a very much happier and more productive life.