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How to stop worrying & start living
"A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens."
Michel de Montaigne
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
7
Key Ideas
Recognizing warning signs
The most dangerous emotions are the ones you don’t know are affecting you. When you know what happens when the worries start, you’ll be relieved and you'll also be able to do some...
Anxiety vs. Fear
- Fear is what you feel in the moment when someone comes at you with a knife.
- Anxiety is about the anticipation of an event. Anxiety is often problem-solving — but without the solving part.
Avoiding bad feelings doesn't work
Whenever you have the urge to avoid, you need to realize that’s an opportunity to weaken your worries. It’s a chance to practice more mindfulness. Shift your focus away from your thoughts and back to the concrete world.
5
Key Ideas
Observe, Accept, and Reframe
Recognizing and accepting the fact you're being nervous before an important presentation will help you more than trying to fight those anxious feelings. Resistance creates even more angst.
On...
Focus on Your Body
Instead of being swept in the spiral of negative thoughts like 'What if I fail? What will they think of me? try to be aware of your physical sensations: how your heart beats, how the air fills your lungs, the heat and sweat you feel.
This will anchor you in the present moment and calm your nerves.
Tips For Calming Your Nerves
- Make sure you get a good night’s sleep, that you're hydrated and that you had a good meal before.
- Be careful with your caffeine intake before a big presentation so that your heart rate isn’t already elevated.
- Strike a power pose. Research shows it can shift your mood and make you feel more confident.
- Own the space. If you can, get to the room early and really imagine owning it.
3
Key Ideas
Anxiety is rewarding
Each time we worry and nothing bad happens, our mind connects worry with preventing harm:
Worry → nothing bad happens.
And the takeaway is, "It's a good thing I worried."&nbs...
Beliefs about worry
- If I worry, I'll never have a bad surprise.
- It's safer if I worry. We believe that the act of worrying itself somehow lowers the likelihood of a dreaded outcome.
- I show I care by worrying. We need to distinguish between caring about a situation and worrying needlessly and fruitlessly about it.
- Worrying motivates me. We need to differentiate between unproductive worry and productive concern and problem solving.
- Worrying helps me solve problems. Extreme worry is more likely to interfere with problem-solving.
Tools to assist us with worry
- Calm the nervous system with guided muscle relaxation, meditation, and exercise.
- Notice when you're worrying and any beliefs that reinforce worry. Awareness of the process gives us more choice in how we respond.
- Embrace uncertainty. Most of the things we care about in life involve uncertainty. It takes considerable practice to begin to embrace it.
- Live in the present. Practice focusing your attention on the present in everyday activities like taking a shower, walking, or talking with a friend, as well as in more formal practices like meditation or yoga.
- When we face our fears head-on, they tend to diminish. Deliberately accept what you're afraid of: "It's possible I'll miss my flight."