5 Ways To Reduce Worrying
Schedule "worry time" on your calendar...it may sound strange to create time in your day to worry. But if you become disciplined with this practice, you can give your worries a space to be. Then just like putting down the glass of water, once your worry time is up, you move on with the rest of your day. When inevitably, those worried thoughts re-emerge later in the day, you can confidently not allow your mind to go there. You have set aside time for worry and you can go there later.
Practice meditation... meditation isn’t about pushing worries away, clearing the mind, or stopping thoughts — that’s not possible. But over time, we can train the mind to observe our thoughts and emotions without getting caught up in them. In time and with practice, we realize that our thoughts are temporary; that they don’t define us, and that we are not our thoughts. (Even the worry thoughts).
Learn to distinguish between solvable and unsolvable worries...solvable worries are things you can work on right away. We can create a plan of action and take small achievable steps towards diminishing that worry. Unsolvable worries have no corresponding action. For instance, we can't control the weather. When there is uncertainty, meditation is a practice that can help us feel less stressed when things are out of our control.
Write down your worries... kind of like a gratitude journal, try starting a worry journal. Putting your emotions on paper may give them less power. This can be your scheduled "worry time". At the end of the week, you can see where your mind has gone. Did any of your worries come true? Did worrying help the situation or not?
Write down what you are grateful for... research has shown that when we feel an increased appreciation in our lives, we feel more optimistic and happy day today. Gratitude journals just generally feel good.
