What are worries?
These are nagging thoughts about something you fear might happen. If you pay attention to these thoughts, they would grow stronger and attract similar thoughts, and in no time, the fear would grow and occupy your mind and affect your behavior and even your health.
If you allow these thoughts to fill your mind, they would grow stronger, deprive you of peace, and make you unhappy.
Worries start as thoughts, but soon negative emotions get involved.
If you do not stop the worries the moment they start, they turn into a self-perpetuating cycle of negative thoughts, negative mental images and negative emotions.
According to Wikipedia:
“Worry refers to the thoughts, images and emotions of a negative nature in which mental attempts are made to avoid anticipated potential threats. As an emotion it is experienced as anxiety or concern about a real or imagined issue.”
According to Merriam Webster:
“To think about problems or fears: to feel or show fear and concern because you think that something bad has happened or could happen.”
Is it possible to stop worrying?
Yes, you can stop worrying, or at least, eliminate most of your worries.
I would like to offer you a few tips to help you stop worrying. Reading them is great, but practicing what you read is more important.
I would like to ask you a question, what about not creating worries at all, instead of creating them, and then practicing tips to stop them?
Yes, this is possible, but this requires some inner work on your part. Are you ready to invest some time and effort in this worthy goal?
When there is more inner peace, worries will find hard to get into your mind. In this situation, a mental state of no-worries will become natural, and you will not need tips to stop worrying.
A peaceful mind does not create worries. When there is inner peace, worries go away.
Below, you will find a few tips that I hope you will find useful.
How to Stop Worrying
1. It is easier to eliminate worries when they just start, than after they grow stronger. Try to be aware of the thoughts that pass through your mind and when you feel that worries are starting to build up, do one of the following:
- Read an inspiring or funny book.
- Read a few inspiring quotes and think about their meaning. You can find a collection of quotes in the quotes directory here.
- Work out or engage in any kind of sport to take your mind away from the worries and not let them grow.
Get busy with any activity that you love doing. You may, for example, watch a movie, read a book, take a walk or meet a friend.
2. Analyze them to find how real they are. Often, they are just unreal fears that create unnecessary stress and anxiety. Often, there is no reality behind them. There is no reason to let them trouble you if they are not real, but only imaginary.
If they are real, instead of worrying, look for ways to deal with their causes. Sometimes, you have to do just a few changes in your life to eliminate their causes.
3. Often, thinking about what is the worst that can happen, if the worries are true, will reveal that it is something not so scary, which you can deal with it. This would make you feel better.
4. Ask yourself, how many of your worries came true. The mind moves from one worry to another. Therefore, many worries do not receive enough attention to grow strong enough affect your life.
5. Do you worry about what people think of you? Can you read their minds and know exactly what they think? No, you don’t, and it is quite possible that they don’t think about you at all, and you just get concerned in vain.
Often, we arrive at the wrong conclusions and wrongly interpret people’s behavior and reactions. This creates unnecessary suffering about things that are not real at all.
6. When you feel weak, hungry or tired, worries arise more easily. Therefore, in these situations, give yourself some rest, eat or drink something and get some sleep. Afterwards, it would be easier to deal with what is troubling you.
7. Stop what you are doing, and ask yourself, “What can I do right now to stop worrying?” Follow the ideas you get.
8. Try, even though it might not be easy, to detach yourself from the negative thoughts in your mind and free yourself of them. Try to show lack of interest in your worries. You might not succeed at first, but with perseverance you will succeed.
9. I know that meditation is not everyone’s cup of tea. However, it can help you stop worrying and start living a more peaceful life. Simple meditation, for a few minutes can help. Of course, you need to train yourself with meditation for some time, before getting results.
Remember, worries are thoughts, and you can refuse to pay them attention. Your attention gives them life and strength, and if you deny them of your attention (which is possible, but not always easy to do) they will grow weaker and leave you.
