There’s no reason to feel bad for worrying. In actuality, it’s a typical aspect of who we are. Everyday concerns include how to pay the bills, the safety of our children while they are at school, where to go on our next vacation, and what other people will think of us.
However, concern turns into a problem when it gets out of control. Worrying too much or too often will result in mental health problems.
Worry typically results in unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and anxiety when we imagine worst-case scenarios, impending dangers, or situations that demonstrate our own lack of value. In the end, anxiety does little to alter the source of your worries.
Many people want their problems to end but are unsure of how.
Some people think of it as only a bad habit that may be broken with practice. How therefore can one stop worrying?
Ways To Help Your Brain To Stop Worrying
You may safeguard your brain using a number of techniques. You can develop the ability to plan for the future without worrying.
1. Accept the things you cannot change.
We frequently concentrate on issues that are beyond of our control or difficulties that we can’t fix, which is one of the reasons we worry excessively.
Maintain consistency with your goals and acknowledge that some things are just outside of your control because you have no control over what happens in life, but you can control your effort and the caliber of your work. You are the only one who can give yourself the life you want, so all you can do is keep your head down and work hard.
You’ll feel lighter once you realize that nothing is within your power to control. and eventually put your concerns at ease.
2. Give up trying to be in charge of everything.
You feel the need to exert total control. Particularly when you’ve taken the effort to try to plan things out, you want everything to go as planned.
You panic when things don’t go as planned. You panic and become agitated. You have the impression that everything is a chaos and that nothing is like you had hoped.
It’s simple to comprehend. Many of us detest when things go out of hand because it makes it difficult for us to confront and control situations in the way we believe is appropriate.
Your need to control circumstances, people, and even how they think often grows stronger as a result of worry and anxiety. But you are aware that this is a hopeless endeavor. Everything, including your troubles, anxieties, and most importantly other people, are outside of your control.
You’ll have one less thing to worry about once you realize that life has its own peculiar ways of twisting and doing things and once you learn to adapt.
3. Find your stopping point and limit your worry.
Where is your stop-loss point, or the point at which you stop worrying and let things go, when you find yourself in a loop of worry and anxiety?
Giving each worry a limit prevents you from letting them take control of you. Instead, you become aware of everything on your mind and decide to put your attention elsewhere rather than going deeper. You can retrain your brain to worry less and more intelligently by doing this.
4. It’s just thoughts.
Realizing that thoughts aren’t facts is another technique for dealing with unpleasant thoughts that is frequently utilized in contemporary therapy. It is crucial to consider whether what we are thinking is real. Did that actually occur? What is the worst that might occur?
One situation where false beliefs are taken as fact is flight fear. Despite the fact that flying is the safest mode of transportation, some who have a phobia of flying accept their concerns and ideas as true and refuse to fly as a result.
5. Spend more time in the present moment.
There is nothing wrong with occasionally daydreaming about the past, especially if you are considering something that motivates you. Spending too much time in the past, though, can cause some issues.
The best course of action is to simply keep your time and attention in the present, where you have the ability to choose what is right for you and carry it out.
Live in the moment, cherish each second, breathe, and take in all that life has to give.
6. Switch your focus and pause for a moment.
Break the worrying loop. Find constructive pursuits that can quickly divert your attention if you worry excessively. Be active. Break the loop by getting up and moving. Exercise releases endorphins, which reduce stress and tension, increase energy, and improve your sense of wellbeing.
By engaging in a variety of uncontrolled behaviors, including as binge eating and substance misuse, people attempt to avoid rumination. But diverting our focus from the issues that are worrying us is a much more effective strategy to deal with such distress.
You can divert your attention by engaging in an entirely unrelated activity that requires you to focus on something else. You can pick the one that works best for you from a wide variety of activities that can be utilized to divert your attention from worrying. Here are a few instances:
- Listen to music
- Read a book
- Take a hot shower
- Dance or exercise
- Talk to a friend (not about the problem)
- Watch a movie
- Mindfulness meditation
7. Take a social media detox.
Despite its benefits, social media is actually a significant source of concern and anxiety in society. We may become miserable and feel inferior as a result of frequent comparison, but we keep going back.
The issue is that social media is like a highlight reel; it only shows you the best aspects of people’s lives. As a result, you sit there comparing yourself to everyone and feeling disappointed or sad that you haven’t achieved that “level,” even though you have no idea what their real lives are like.
It’s time you took a step back if you believe social media may be negatively affecting your mental health, depressing you, or making you feel uneasy. Learn to put more emphasis on your own reality rather than letting social media rule your life.
8. Write down your worries.
Solutions rarely result from worrying. Write away your worries rather than dwelling on everything that could possibly go wrong. You feel as though you are clearing your mind when you write down your anxieties; as a result, you feel lighter and less tense.
Give your problems some thought and put them in writing. Look into the causes of your concerns or issues. Once you are aware of your top concerns, consider whether or not they can be resolved. Concentrate on those you can fix or change rather than those that are out of your control or that you are powerless to change.
“Get everything out and don’t hold back. You don’t have to share your thoughts with anyone, and don’t worry about spelling and grammar. Getting worries out of your head through expressive writing frees up cognitive resources for other things.”
Hans Schroder (Ph.D.Clinical Psychology, Michigan State University)
9. Consider the bright side of things.
Where your attention is focused, energy flows. Recognize that you have the power to choose whether or not to pay attention to your thoughts. In fact, you’ll be better able to produce more positive outcomes as you become more positive.
Always go with the positive attitude. Develop the ability to remain composed and serene and to see the bright side of situations. The outcomes will be more favorable the more positive feedback you receive.
10. Catch yourself worrying.
When you see yourself worried or ruminating, there are several doable things you may do in your regular routine. The thought-stopping method is one effective treatment.
You tell yourself to stop whenever you begin to have unfavorable thoughts or ruminate. When you speak the word out loud, it is more powerful.
It’s also advised to wear a rubber band around your wrist so you can ping it against your wrist when you repeat the word. The method is strengthened by giving it a visual component by envisioning a stop sign.
Say to yourself, “Stop.”
The key goal here is to teach oneself how to break the cycle of worrying (creating predictions for the future) or ruminating (obsessing over past events).
The approach needs to be used daily and could take up to two weeks to start working. It’s critical to be consistent.
11. Practice meditation.
Regular meditation practice is another method for learning how to quit worrying about the future or dwelling on the past.
It is evident that consistently taking a few minutes, even one minute, to unwind, breathe, and recharge will significantly enhance mental wellness. You can increase your sense of peace by taking a seat quietly and concentrating on your breath, the physical sensations of the chair under you, or the ground beneath your feet.
It is not possible to cease thinking, clear the mind, or push anxieties aside during meditation. But with practice, we can teach the mind to be aware of our feelings and thoughts without getting sucked into them. Instead of responding to them, we softly observe them before letting them go. We become aware that our thoughts are fleeting, that they do not define us, and that we are not our thoughts when we step back and watch them in that way.
12. Identify the true facts.
Sometimes, after fretting for days, we come to the conclusion that our worries were unfounded. This is a terrible reality that most of us have certainly encountered.
When they have incomplete or inaccurate information, people become concerned. Let’s say you were unsure whether a certain stomach discomfort was indicative of a serious illness. In this situation, speaking with a professional can put an end to your concerns right immediately because you can learn that you were misled. Avoid the pitfall of gathering knowledge from unreliable sources or acquaintances; instead, consult specialists.
Most of the time, once you see the big picture, you’ll see that there isn’t really much to worry about.
13. Don’t be vain.
Many people, including older individuals as well as members of younger generations, worry frequently about vanity.
We frequently fret about what others may think of us. We always fear that we won’t live up to society’s standards. We are ultimately concerned with how other people will perceive us. With this mentality, we begin to place an excessive amount of value on our ego, which results in a persistent search for other people’s approval and admiration. If we don’t get this acknowledgment, we start to fear that we are no good. Greater inner composure and self-assurance will help us to let go of concern about what other people think or feel.
The views of the general public need to be given less weight. We shouldn’t let other people’s ideas define our worth, therefore even if we receive criticism, we need not worry. Although it won’t happen immediately, if we can learn to separate ourselves from other people’s opinions, we will experience more inner peace and stop stressing about how insignificant other people’s opinions really are.
The greatest way to get over vanity-driven worry is to stop caring what other people think of you. After all, we have no control over this. Instead, work on creating a positive self-perception by highlighting your finest qualities.
14. Don’t try to infer what someone is thinking.
Even when we have no understanding what is actually happening in someone’s head, we occasionally try to make up our own story about what is happening there. For instance, if we unintentionally say something a little bit off to a friend or coworker, we instinctively think that they are upset with us. Then we imagine their furious faces when they learn that we have lost hours of sleep to worry. But often our concerns are only figments of our imaginations.
Trying to guess what someone is thinking is usually fruitless and a waste of energy. Our imagination is capable of conjuring up events that are exaggerated and occasionally even hazardous. Our fears won’t go away if we allow our imaginations to linger and become fixated on these images in our heads.
Why not address the person right away to find out what they are truly thinking, rather than worrying? This will help you avoid a lot of future problems.
15. Exercise.
Your body automatically activates the “fight or flight” reaction when your brain detects danger. You do this so that you can actually get away from any threat. When a scenario poses a threat to your life, your body generates adrenaline to aid you.
The same response results from worry or dread since your brain cannot distinguish between a real threat and an imagined one.
Exercise is a fantastic technique to lessen the physical signs of worry brought on by the adrenaline rush. Exercise soothes your body while meditation calms your mind. Your mind learns that there is no need to worry when your body stops exhibiting the physical signs of stress. It has the capacity to regress after becoming more aroused.
Your body uses adrenaline positively when you exercise regularly, which enables it to manage stressful situations better. When you’re stressed or anxious, your heart rate goes up, and your breathing becomes shallower. Both can be decreased with exercise.
You can lessen stress by lowering your blood pressure, which rises in response to stress and itself can cause stress. Sometimes the source of your stress won’t even be clear to you, in which case an exercise is a terrific tool.
Take a brief break and go for a walk while taking in your surroundings. Your concentration will shift away from whatever was bothering you, allowing you to unwind.
Bottom Line
Though it’s very common to worry, most of the time it’s not essential.
It will not only save you time, but it will also spare you a lot of misery, heartache, and headaches if you can train your brain to quit worrying about things that are absolutely beyond your control.
You don’t have to dive straight in and adhere to every step to the letter; instead, ease your way into it. As you continue to use these techniques, ideally you’ll ultimately stop worrying about the minor things and start to enjoy life more.