How to Stop Worrying

Worry is corrosive form of useless thought – that is all worry is. Yet, it turns mole hills into mountains, conjures up imaginary crises and transforms the small puddles that we have to inevitably step over in life into raging impassable rivers. Instead of looking at life’s little hand grenades for what they really are, our sad little minds turn them into weapons of mass self-destruction. Worry is not just a waste of your energy – worry, at best, is stifling the life out of you – at worst, it is the cancer that is eating you from the inside out. Worry removes you totally from the here and now and disables you from doing what needs to be done.

Let’s just consider, for a moment, how stupid worry actually is. After all, what sensible person would willingly decide to direct their mental energy into something that they do not want to happen? Yet that is what worry is. Perhaps it goes to prove that there are very few sensible people around! I’ve spoken to plenty of people over the last year who are worried about losing their jobs – not because their jobs are in any jeopardy but because they’ve seen other people lose theirs and, everyday, they take some perverse pleasure in wallowing in the wall-to-wall bad news that is choking the airwaves. Again, I’ve spoken to many people who are worried about not having enough money – who, at the very same time, have bought themselves new cars, comforted themselves with a few designer-labelled garments and, after that splurge, have ended up worrying even more!

Which is the more sensible thing to do? Worry about losing your job or doing the job to the very best of your ability? After all, not doing your job to the best of your ability increases the chances of you losing it – your worry, as it often does, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And what’s the point of worrying about money? Wouldn’t you be better off re-focusing your attention on the simple things that are truly important in life? Which will lead to a happier and more successful life, directing your energy into what you don’t want to happen or pouring your energy into the here and now in the expectation that the things that you want to happen will come to pass?

Sadly, the normal mind is the author of its own misery. I’m not saying that bad things don’t happen – the point I’m making is that, when they do, there are very few people who are mentally fit enough to get on with what needs to be done to dig themselves out of the hole and start afresh. In fact, normal people do quite the opposite – even when all is going well for the normal person, those actively go looking for a shovel! Unfortunately, psychological research suggests that we are hard-wired to focus on the negative and, if we can’t find anything negative to think about, we’ll make it up! That is all that worry is – a concoction of a fevered normal mind.

So, let’s sort your worries out for you. The first thing that you need to understand is that outside events don’t worry you – it is you who decides to worry. That decision may be subconscious but it is, nevertheless, a decision on your part. What you have to do it release your subconscious mind from its obsession with the negative. This is not done by fighting the negative – it is done by turning your attention to something that is altogether real – the reality of what is actually taking place in this moment. The reality of now is very different from what you perceive it to be. Your perception is warped by your negative subconscious mind – you see nothing as it is. Little wonder then that you see shadows where there aren’t any, bogeymen that don’t exist and future problems when, in fact, all that you have is today.

The only place where you can be your very best is here. The only time that you can take the action required to better your life is now. You need to learn how to focus as much of your attention as possible on here and now. In doing so, less of your attention will be available to concoct the outrageous scenarios that keep the worrier awake at four o’clock in the morning! Not only will you break the subconscious cycle of worry, you will become more effective by being more focused – even an idiot (and there are lots of them around) could figure that one out!

So, tomorrow morning, instead of starting your day in the mindless mess that fosters and nurtures worry, take five minutes – that’s all that’s required to get the ball rolling. Sit down somewhere where you won’t be disturbed for those five minutes, close your eyes and focus only on what you hear. The following day, do the same but, this time, focus on what you feel in your body. The next day, close your eyes and focus on the way your body moves each time you breathe. Start getting in touch with what your senses are actually telling you. In coming to your senses, you will understand the nonsense of worry.