Overcoming Fear and Anxiety by Creating a "Worry Period"

You no doubt start getting a tight, queezy feeling in the pit of your stomach, your chest my even start hurting, and you can feel your heart start to race. You will notice that you irritable, nervous, probably having trouble concentrating on anything. Getting to sleep at night is an issue for you or you wake up in the wee hours of the morning and your finances is the first thing your mind goes to. Instead of allowing your mind to run wild with anxiety, it will be to your advantage to start doing some things that will lower the amount of worrying that you do. Believe it or not, you can short-circuit the worry cycle and begin getting a handle on your runaway anxiety. One such approach of overcoming worry and anxiety is to set aside a specific amount of time per day for a "worry period." In other words, throughout the course of your day, make a conscious decision to postpone worrying and becoming anxious until it is "worry time." I recommend giving yourself anywhere from 15-20 minutes during the day to fret and stew to your hearts content. I don't recommend doing this in the late evening however. During this time, allow yourself to fully experience whatever feelings of worry and anxiety you might have. Don't hold it back or try to bottle it in. This is your time to worry. As I said earlier, if you start worrying at other times of the day, simply remind yourself to put whatever it is that is bothering you, on your "worry list" for later. All you are really doing is simply developing the skill of postponing your worries. Once the worry time is over, it is over. Let go of the worry until the next day, when you can worry about it then. It sounds too simple to work, but if you are not denying yourself time to worry, and not beating yourself up and feeling guilty when you do worry, you are more likely to lessen the amount of worrying you will do, even during the worry period. It is a very effective method of overcoming worry and anxiety. If you do less worrying, you will feel less anxiety as a result. Setting aside a special time for nothing but worry will also help you be more positive and productive throughout the day, because you will be more focused on the task at hand versus worrying about problems that will still be there during the worry period. Another added benefit to this approach is that you may often find yourself being more productive and creative at other tasks because you are now able to give them your full attention. So go ahead and start writing up your list of problems to dwell on during your "worry time". During the day, if something else comes up that starts you to worrying, merely stop, add it to your list and deal with it later. With practice you will be amazed at how much better you are getting at not permitting worry and fear to consume your every waking moment.