How to Stop Worrying And Start Living
Worry is consuming peoples lives. The stats are staggering, up to 60% of people worry about money, loss of job, relationship problems or worry about children. Learning how to stop worrying and start living is very important for many reasons.
Chronic worry can certainly to major hearth issues. Often times it can even compound the issue of concern. Here are some of the steps you can take to minimize or even eliminate worry.
- Focus on the present.
- Mindfulness (I will show you how to develop mindfulness later in this blog).
- Get clear on the real issue, not the issues you are building in your mind. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.
- Tell yourself you can think about it later – don’t allow it to consume you.
- Choose to see a positive outcome and focus on that.
One of the things that I have learned through my life and working with others is to look back at other times in my life where I worried and the long term outcome of the situation really worked out to be very positive. In fact, there isn’t a time in my life that this wasn’t true.
Then I learned that the more I focused on all the good that could come from a problem, the less and less I would worry. Keeping your mind only on the facts and not what you think “can or will happen” certainly changes the way you experience each moment. Seldom do things turn out as bad as we make them up to be during the worry.
Here is an exercise that I do personally that makes a HUGE difference and always keeps me out of worry, brings me back to living, and gives me the ability to see how to handle situations to a positive outcome.
Tip #1 – How to stop worrying and start living!
It is important to get real with yourself. Here are some things to notice.
- First you must want to be free of the worry. Silly as that might sound, you have to choose to live and not worry.
- You are worrying in the midst of trying to attempt to do other things.
- The worry can keep you from handling or solving the problem.
- Ask yourself, “What is the value of my worrying?”
Tip #2 – A Quiet Process
When you find yourself overcome with worry.
- Stop what you are doing and find a quiet place.
- Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
- Ask yourself it you are willing to be free of the worry?
- Continue to ask the same question until you can say, “YES.”
- With your eyes closed, create a mental picture of what life looks like free of worry.
- See it in technicolor, feel the energy and joy of living worry-free. (It’s possible.)
- Pay particular attention to what you see in your mind’s eye.
- Make a choice to experience life rather than the worry.
- Take a deep breathe and open your eyes. – Then Just Do What’s Next!
Tip # 3 Stay Consistent
- Every single time you feel any sense of the worry returning…stop and repeat the visualization.
- Eventually, the visualization will become what you see rather than the worry. And you will be living again.
In closing, remember – Worry Creates Worry… Joy creates Joy. There is never anything in your life that isn’t part of the puzzle that will lead you to something even greater…if you give yourself the chance to see it that way.
There’s a song about this… “Don’t Worry Be Happy!” I say it’s a choice.
The Power of Imagination takes you where you want to go or where you don’t want to go. Let me show you how to use this power to get you out of the worry and into living.