WORRY

Do you worry a lot?

One of the aspects of worry is your inability to tolerate doubt and uncertainty. It's a tactic people use to prevent unpleasant surprises and control the outcome. It doesn't work of course, but when you're worried it's hard to turn off those thoughts.

Someday a medicine will be developed to keep worry from dominating people’s lives. It will allow them to loosen up and cause the brain to slow the flow of negative thoughts. Its effect will be immediate. Worry will disappear within half an hour of taking the drug.

We don't have anything like that right now. If you're a chronic worrier, it can be painful and paralyzing. Worry can flood your emotions with negativity making it impossible for you to introduce any positive or alternative thoughts into your mind.

The problem with worry is that it can become a continuous loop of anticipatory anxiety. By worrying, we think we're doing something to solve our problems when in fact we're only making ourselves feel worse. That in itself can become a worry. How do we stop ourselves from worrying?

We don't. We try to put it out of our minds as we're told to do, but it lingers there in the alley. We think we're rid of it but all we've done is cover it up or pretend that whatever the worry is it'll subside if we can just turn off the tap.

Worry drips inside people like acid. Their stomachs burn and they feel like they're carrying around a basketball of anxiety.Worry can also be caused by genetics. You may be predisposed to worry. Some people worry more than others because that's how they're hard wired.

Trying to get rid of the thoughts that are causing you to worry doesn't work. If fact, it may intensify worrying because if you're told not to worry, worry is all you think about.

Unfortunately, there's no way to prevent worry from happening. Uncertainty is part of life. Unexpected things happen to all of us. Just remember that worry can have a positive effect on your thoughts. Instead of trying to get rid of it, make a plan to deal with whatever it is that's bothering you. By doing that, your mind will be occupied by ideas and possibilities instead of anxiety and fear