Don’t worry, be happy…

This perhaps is easier said than done; if we were to keep a tally of all the worries we had over a lifetime, we’d discover that all the gray hair we grew and all the stomachaches we experienced were largely unwarranted. We all know that, yet we continue to slide into the spiral of anxiety. In fact, it seems that we generally seem to worry the most over future issues we’re totally powerless about. Is worry negative thinking? I don’t necessarily think so, even though it’s rooted into fear, but the two are closely related in the sense that worry brings negative thinking, not the other way around. Just forcing positive thinking into our minds is not going to eliminate worry. Short of recommending my wife's favorite, the “Guatemalan worry doll method” in which worriers tell each doll an issue before going to sleep so it can work on solving it while the owner sleeps, I have a few recommendations to root out that calamity. First, if something worries you and there is something you can do to address it, take some concrete and immediate steps in that direction. Then, always identify the worrying thought, isolate it and find some distraction to minimize it. Try also to keep track of what worries you and then observe the real outcome; if you do, you’ll realize quickly that most worries are unwarranted. Another helpful tool is to always be grateful for what you have at the moment and appreciate it fully. Finally, always look for the best instead of the worst outcome in any situation; realize that worry is a habit and like any habit it can be made or broken in 21 to 40 days. Start crushing it today!