I am a professional worrier. Maybe you’ve never heard of such a thing, but I can worry about things YEARS in advance, things that probably won’t happen.  I guess for some strange reason I feel like worrying is accomplishing something.  I’m being productive by worrying, right?  Wrong.

There’s an old English proverb that says,

“Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but it won’t get you anywhere.”

That’s true, it DOESN’T you anywhere.  So why do we do it?  It saps our energy, our attention, it creates negativity in our life.

I’d like to share with you an exercise that I’ve been doing lately to help quell my worrying mind.

Set aside time each day to worry.  About 30-60 minutes.  That time is ONLY for worrying. Designate a worry notebook.  During your worry time write all your worries down.  I filled MANY pages my first time doing this.  When the time is up, close the book. Tell your brain to STOP, there is a time and a place for worrying and now is not the time.  Push the pause button.

You’re not denying yourself the time to worry you’re just deciding when this will happen.

During the day it’s natural for more worrisome thoughts to pop into your head.  Take out your worry notebook and write the worry down and close it, again tell yourself that the time for worrying is not now.

As you write worries down throughout the day you’ll realize just how often you really do worry and think negative thoughts.  You’ll also feel better getting the worry out of your head and onto paper.

You might get a good laugh as your go back and review your worries.

One of the thoughts I wrote down during my worry hour was, “I’m so stressed about moving.” The funny thing is…we’re not moving…eventually we are, and that will be the time to stress about it, but until we know when we’re moving why waste energy worrying about it?  I literally laughed out loud when I read that.  It was just ridiculous.

So To Recap:

• Designate a consistent time of day to worry.  This is your “worry time.”
• Designate a notebook to be your “worry notebook.” (It’s nice if you can carry it around easily)
• During “worry time” do a brain dump of all your worries, get ’em all down on paper and out of your poor tired brain.
• When the time is up close your book and say “the time for worrying is done I’m going to use my mind for productive thoughts.”
• Throughout the day as a worry pops into your head write it down.
• Come back to your “worry book” during your next “worry time” and read through your worries and add to them, you may just get a good laugh.

Worrying drains your energy that you could be putting into more productive activities like spending time with your family, cooking dinner, working on some business goals and more.

Don’t let worry rule your life.  Make a plan to give it attention but ONLY during the designated time.

If you know a worry wort share this with them!

Have a wonderful, healthy day,

~Hannah