Reducing your Worry : Are your Beliefs Keeping you Stuck?

Our beliefs about worry can tell us a lot about why we worry and why worry is sticking around.  Even though worry can feel all consuming, awful, and debilitating, it is usually there for a reason and serves some sort of function for us. You may find that you have either a positive or a negative relationship with your worry. Perhaps you hate it and you try to push it away, which only makes it stronger. Perhaps you feel that you need to worry to succeed in some way, which also makes it stick around.

I experienced a huge shift in my thinking and my levels of worry when I realized that I had the following belief:

“ If I don’t worry, I won’t be able to solve my problems or make decisions”. 

I truly believed that the only way I could solve problems or make decisions was to think, think think and overthink. I would spend hours going over scenarios in my mind to try to find the answer. Once I realized this belief, I explored the other ways in which I may be able to solve problems or make decisions. Personally, I discovered that the times in my life when I have been able to make a decision or solve a problem, the ideas came to me when I was in a state of calm, maybe while walking, or while my mind felt clear. There was space to receive information. I didn’t have to force myself so hard to figure it out.

So for me, the function that worry was serving, was that of being a problem solver. No wonder it was sticking around. I felt I needed it to succeed!

Ask yourself the following questions to help you discover your worry beliefs:

1- What is my worry giving me?

2- Fill in the blank: If I don’t worry then _________ will happen.

3- What does worry take from me?

4- What do I do when I start worrying?

5- How do I react to worry (thoughts and feelings)?