7 Ways to Stop Worrying

Worrying – we all do it.  We worry about work, school money, family, friends.  In fact, worrying is just another part of our day which can lead to stress, anxiety and fear.  But worrying can become a bad habit that interrupts you from living your life to the fullest so you need to know ways to stop worrying.

It is easy to say, “Just stop worrying”, but the reality is that it is not that simple.  Everyone has different worries and how they handle things so telling someone to just stop worrying is like telling a dog to not chase a squirrel.  There needs to be a better ways to stop worrying and refocus your life

While worry is a normal part of your life, constantly worrying about things can cause more problems than relieve them.  When you worry, your body releases stress hormones that negatively impact your body’s natural immune system causing stress levels to rise thus impacting your digestive system and many other areas of your body.

If you would like to find ways to stop worrying and start living your life, there are some things you can do to do just that.  Just remember that things are not going to change overnight.  Worrying is a bad habit that will take time to change just like developing any other habits.

Here are seven ways to stop worrying:

1. What you focus on becomes your life

What many people do not realize is our subconscious mind has a major impact on our lives.  Just like a camera what you focus on in your life is what you will get in your life.  If you spend your time focusing on the problems in your life, you will start to see more problems.  But if you focus on the positive, you will begin to notice more positive things in your life.

While it will not happen overnight, taking time each day to focus on the positive aspects of your life will help you not focus on the negative things and eventually it will become habit to be positive and is one way to stop worrying.

2. Fear of failure should not be how you define your life

The fear of failure is the number one reason people do not follow their dreams.  And often, the fear we create in our minds is much worse than the actual situation.  If is not a secret that we are experts at making mountains out of molehills and this applies to fear of failure.  Majority of the time, the fear of failure is much worse than actually failing.

If you let your fear of failure dictate how you live your life.  Address the fears and push forward.

3. Remember, you’ve survived this before, you can do it again

Majority of worrying is due to the fear of the what-ifs that come up.  What if A happens? What if so-and-so gets mad at me? What if this job is not what I was hoping it would be? Once again, fear is taking over our life.

But what you need to remind yourself is that you have go this.  You really do.  You have survived similar situations in the past and have the capability to survive the situation you are in right now.  Worrying about the situation does not actually help you fix the situation.  All it does is make it worse.

Remind yourself that you are capable of pushing forward and have been able to do so in the past.

4. Disrupt the negative

Another ways to stop worrying to disrupting the negative thoughts. As soon as you have a negative thought cross your mind that induces worry or stress, immediately disrupt that thought.  You must disrupt your patterns of negativity that put you in a deep anxious state.  But first you must identify what causes you to fall into that negative pattern.  What do you believe triggers the negative thoughts? Do you know? As negative thoughts arise, write them down.  Why did that thought come up? Where did that thought come from? Once you know the why, take a moment to reverse the negative with a positive thought and write that down.  Developing this habit will help you eliminate the fear of the negative and reduce your worrying.

5. Your value is based on your opinion and no one else’s opinion

Having a person talk negatively about you does not feel good.  It never does.  But what others say about you does not directly define who you are as a person and definitely does not define your self-worth.

While it is not easy to power through the noise of other’s opinions and move past pettiness, you must learn to do so if you desire to have peace in your life.  When someone says something negative about you, just brush it off.  It is not worth the worry that it causes and the negative influence on your physical health.

6. If it’s not easy, it is likely worth it

We too often expect things to change immediately because that is how our culture works, but the reality here is that if it is worthwhile it will not happen overnight.  They take time and a whole ton of patience.  When you accept that not only is it worthwhile, but it is worth the wait, and the sleepless nights, stress and worry will begin to dissipate.

7. Set your goal and chase them daily

Worrying is rough on us both physically and mentally, but in order to move forward we need to have a shift in our goals and work daily to achieve those goals.  By setting a goal, making a plan and taking action you are taking control back in your life.  Pick a goal in your life and write that thing down.  Then work relentlessly to reach your goal.  You will realize that by removing the negative, the worry will start to slowly melt away.