Worry on Purpose?

Here’s a surprising strategy: set aside time to really worry about whatever is bothering you.

Restricting your worried thoughts to a preset block of time each day can ease actually anxiety. Set aside a 15 or 30 minute block of time each day dedicated to focusing on your worries. During that time, this is all you can do. Think about your worries and write down your worry thoughts.

At the end of your worry time, you must stop…knowing you can rehash your anxieties again tomorrow during worry time.

Using this strategy, most people will find they don’t worry as much over the course of a week as they used to. The key to success is to stop worry from creeping into your whole day by telling yourself (anytime a worry comes up outside of worry time) to stop worrying now because you can worry about it later (during worry time). Often, when worry time arrives, you may not feel a need to worry about it. And if you do, just contain it to the worry time.