Winning over worry

A chairman of an insurance company, in is mid-30s was wealthy and seemed to have nothing to worry about.  Yet he confessed, “If I did not have business problems, I’d find something else to worry about.  I was spending half my day worrying, and half the night too.  I was losing so much sleep that I was always tired and that was affecting my work.”

Everybody worries, but a handful of researchers who came to focus on this topic while studying insomnia say that most of the worrying we do actually serves no purpose.  WORRY IS CIRCULAR : with ever increasing worries come muscle-tension, headaches that may lead to severe health problems.  The worries build, so you feel worse and worse.  According to Rowland Folensbee, a psychologist, ‘some people are not worriers at first, but they become worriers’. Worry incubates.  Folensbee has had patients so prone to worry, that they do not undergo treatment because the prospect ‘worries’ them too much.  Worry is what the mind does, while the body is feeling anxious.  Not worrying makes a worrier uncomfortable.

The first step in reducing worry is to RECOGNIZE THAT YOU ARE WORRYING, and the next step is to INTERRUPT THIS WORRY BEFORE IT ESCALATES.  As soon as you realise you are worrying, focus on a positive object and carefully describe it to yourself.  The theory is that ‘the mind cannot hang on to two though processes at the same time’.  IMAGING can help stop the WORRY SPIRAL.

Another technique is the ‘relaxation training’ or ‘yoga’.  Go over each muscle group–tense and release.  Worry is a habit, and to counteract this we need substitute habits.  Put aside a part of each day to do your ‘deliberate worrying’, say about half an hour. Do not sit in your favourite chair or choose your cosy corner, nor should you have your ‘worry period’ just before going to bed.  Some people say that worry is useful, but there is a marked difference between ‘worrying’ and ‘problem-solving’.

There are chances of success if you follow these techniques faithfully.  The basis is ‘continued application’.