Lessons for Living
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How much time do you spend worrying?
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Would you like to
have more control over stress, tension, and anxiety in your life? For many people the
solution is simple - worry less. Worry is nothing but fruitless fretting over the possible. It's when something happens that you don't like, so you venture out into an imagined future of bad possibilities. You start thinking of all the things that could go wrong and then convince yourself that they will. If your boss criticizes your job performance, you imagine being fired, losing your home, and living on the street. Dwell upon these possibilities day and night, and you will create misery that you don't need. Life is tough enough without worry adding to your troubles. The solution for "too much worry" may be to worry on a schedule. Set aside 15 - 30 minutes a day as "worry time" and use it to review and think about "all" the problems in your life. Worry as hard as you can at the appointed time. Otherwise, if a worry pops up during the day, just remind yourself to save it for your worry time. By scheduling your worries, you concentrate the time you spend on them, and you may actually reduce them, if you also add an element of reality testing by challenging each worry with the question, "How likely is this to happen?" Reality testing sheds the light of reason on worry and puts you in control, at least, of your reactions to worry. And, when you feel in control, you worry less. Put your worries on a schedule and see if life begins to go better. |
