How Not To Worry

How Not To Worry will teach you how to live stress-free by revealing your brain’s primitive emotional survival instinct and providing a simple and effective roadmap for letting go of your anxieties.

Worries can compound quickly and snowball completely out of control if you allow them to. If there’s one thing that you need to keep in mind it’s to “stop before you spiral.” This is easier said than done because of how the worrying mode of thinking leads to anxiety and quickly triggers your body’s survival mechanism.

Some of the physical manifestations you might experience include shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, racing heart and pupil dilation. A kind of feedback loop is created where worry becomes both the cause and effect of anxiety and/or stress.

What’s worse is that over time, getting stuck in this cycle can begin to take a toll.

This typically impacts your health and the quality of life. Stress can compromise your immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to illness. It has also been proven to decrease sex drive.

It becomes difficult to really enjoy life and live in the moment when you’re constantly consumed with worst-case scenario thinking. You can lose your motivation and creativity. Let’s take a closer look at analyzing the different types of worry.

There is some good news when it comes to the topic of worry. Rather than succumb to the stress and anxiety often associated with it, let’s take a more offensive position and confront worry head-on! Worry covers a broad spectrum, so let’s take a closer look to see if we can’t sort it from the ridiculous reasons to more valid thinking patterns. By identifying those worries that are just too hysterical to entertain, we can begin dealing with some of the others. The best way to begin the sorting process is by first reflecting on the root cause of each individual worry occasion. Think of it as three buckets for sorting your worries: Historical Hysterical Helpful Historical worries are a form of anxiety that reflect a past bad memory or experience. Let’s say that you were mugged while walking home one night. So anytime you find yourself walking down a dark street that prior experience is the root of your worry. Hysterical worry is the opposite – it’s completely irrational. It would be stressing more about unlikely scenarios like shark attacks, getting struck by lightning or a plane crash. These you can overcome by looking at the evidence for them. When you see there’s not much, you’ll quickly give them up! Helpful worry is the most rational and based on real problems. Examples of helpful worry might be a performance review at work, a new…