How Start Living In The Present Moment [Guide To Overcoming Worry & Anxiety]

How Start Living In The Present Moment [Guide To Overcoming Worry & Anxiety]

Worrying disrupts the peace of mind, it makes a person concerned and distressed about circumstances and situations, many of which are beyond their control. Everyone worries or has worried about the future at least a time or two. The future is something we can plan towards, but its eventual outcome is certainly something we can’t control, yet most times we still worry about it.

A lot of times we catch ourselves in the act of distressing over one thing or the other. We are all aware that worrying solves nothing at all, but this knowledge still doesn’t stop us from doing it anyway. Worrying on a normal level about the future is stressful enough, but worrying in excess about it, is much worse. In this case, imaginations about the future dominate your thoughts all the time and these imaginations lean towards the negative.

Worrying in excess is an issue because it could eventually lead to cases like anxiety or depression. Excessive worrying messes with not just your mind but your body as well. It brings immense stress, seizes your peace, affects your productivity, tampers with sleep and eating patterns and disturbs your daily life in general.

How To Stop Worrying About The Future

Worrying about the future is something which seems unnecessary because worry has no power over the future. The only thing worrying does is harm your body in multiple ways. The thing about worrying is that, it focuses your attention on the problem or an imagined problem, rather than what you can do to either fix it or prevent it from happening. It is hardly a productive habit; in fact, it does you absolutely no good. It just specializes in showing you the gloom and doom of uncertain and sometimes unreal situations. Some things can work to help reduce worrying.

Address Your Worries

Worrying and irrational fear dine together. You worry because you are afraid, afraid of what the future would hold. This kind of fear as we all know is not logical many times. So sit down, clearly and logically access your fears and worries about the future. Bring them out and think about how bad this future situation could get, come up with the worst possible scenarios. Then think of a solution to this imaginary problem. These scenarios in reality are hardly likely to occur, but bring up solutions for them anyway. This tends to help ease worrying.

Evaluate Past Worries

Take stock of everything you have ever worried about in the past and write them down. How many of them came true or came true in the magnitude with which you feared and worried about. Hardly any of them did. Remind yourself of this, the next time you feel the urge to worry coming on you.

Share Your Worries

Sharing your worry helps you let it out. Seek out a friend or family member you can talk to about them. You can both reason together and expose these worries for what they really are. If you would rather not share with someone close, then seek the help of a professional, all you may need could just be a listening ear.

Exercise

Exercising doesn’t just keep you fit and build up your body, it helps you free yourself of physical and mental tension. It focuses your mind on the task at hand while freeing you from a state of worrying.

Can Worrying Make You Sick?

A severe case of worrying is very much capable of making a person physically ill. Worrying is capable of triggering physical symptoms like fatigue, increased heart beat, headaches, nausea, dizziness and more. It is capable of causing blood vessels and blood pressure issues as well as digestive issues; it has also been associated with cases of heart attack. Worrying has the ability to lead to anxiety and also depression. These disorders especially depression have had recorded cases of suicidal thoughts and even suicide. In order to seek a form of temporary relief from this overwhelming case of worrying, some people turn to things like: alcoholism, smoking and even the use of drugs. These bad habits are capable of further harming the body on the long run.

Excessive worrying can be greatly reduced and even stopped when properly addressed. Make a decision to put an end to it, as it is capable of leading to psychological and physical health conditions.

How To Live In The Now

Living in the now takes a conscious effort and may prove a bit difficult at first, but it can be done. It is possible to live and appreciate the present rather than obsess over the future or the past. You miss the beauty and enjoyment the present can bring, when you choose to dwell on the past and worry about the future. Re-training your mind to be more focused on present happenings is not a quick or an easy task. It is best to start gradually and then slowly bring your mind back to the present. Consider trying out this ways to help live in the now.

Build Focus

The human mind tends to wander a lot and many times it wanders towards worrisome thoughts. However, when you further build your sense of focus, moving your mind away from worrisome thoughts becomes easy to achieve. Worry captures your mind and focuses it on unproductive and negative possibilities. With a strong focus, you are able to turn your mind and thoughts towards more positive and productive thoughts. You are able to quickly catch your thoughts and bring it back to the present; when it seems you are about to slip back into the habit of worrying and living in other worlds apart from the present.

Appreciate Your Environment

When the urge to worry comes on, try noticing and picking out things from your environment which you can focus on and appreciate. Observe and enjoy your present environment, focus on the sights and sounds, take a breath and just relax. Enlist the help of your five senses; use them to further appreciate everything and remain aware of them. Take walks and admire the magic of nature, star gaze and be amazed at the beauty and magnificence of the universe and everything around you.

Do Something You Enjoy

It could be a hobby or a job, when you occupy yourself with an activity which brings you joy, you tend to focus on the flow. Hours pass like minutes because you remain focused on your present task, from which you find enjoyment and peace. Be it jogging, painting, baking, rock-climbing, you name it; these things you find enjoyment in, have the ability to capture your attention, keeping it grounded and protecting it from straying.

How To Know When Worrying Is Becoming A Disorder

Worrying at regular and controlled levels is hardly any cause for concern and is considered normal. Worrying only becomes a challenge when it is at an increased level and results in negative consequences for the affected person. At this point worrying may very likely be approaching a disorder.

Excess worrying is a sure sign of an anxiety disorder. Symptoms of this condition include: stress and fatigue, constant agitation, lack of focus and concentration, insomnia, restlessness, muscular tension and such. People have even been known to suffer from panic attacks, which produce shocking physical symptoms. If you exhibit some or all of these symptoms, then it is most likely your case of worrying is no longer normal. It may already be approaching a form of disorder.

Natural Ways To Calm Your Nerves

Worrying can cause extreme nervousness and restlessness especially when it is at a high level. Some natural remedies go a long way in helping you ease these jittery nerves.

Breathing Techniques

Breathing is possibly one of the best ways to easy worrying and just calm wracking nerves. Slowly taking in deep breaths is effective in reducing your heart rate as well as your blood pressure. So find a comfortable spot and just breathe.

Music And Dance Therapy

Music and dancing for some reason possesses therapeutic qualities probably because we are naturally musical creatures. Listen to your favorite song and just move your body to the beats. You grant yourself ease and give your body the much needed calm.

Herbal Tea

Some herbal teas are popular for their great relaxing and stress relieving properties. Good examples of such teas are green tea, cinnamon and chamomile tea. So drink a cup or two of herbal tea when next you want to calm your nerves. Add some honey too. Adding some honey doesn’t only act as a sweetener, but acts as a nerve relaxing agent too.

Use Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the inhalation of the scents and fragrances of certain plants and flowers, which help to positively affect the moods and the health of a person. The fragrance of oils like frankincense, chamomile and lavender oil, are very popularly used for anxiety aromatherapy. This is because they prove very effective in soothing and calming the body.

Books On How To Stop Worry And Anxiety

The book How To Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie certainly has first place.

Another good one is Mark Nepo’s The Book Of Awakening.

Then there is also the book, Rewire Your Anxious Brain authored by Catherine Pittman and Elizabeth Karle and finally, How Proust Can Change Your Life written by Alain De Botton.

These books will do you great good.

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