There are times when worrying can be helpful, like when it makes you take actions to solve a problem or get things done. It becomes a problem when it affects your mental health and your physical health too. Too much stress causes anxiety, which greatly affects your happiness and ability to function.

When you develop anxiety, you are unable to sleep well, you develop infections because your immune system is compromised, and you may later develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Anxiety can also cause heart-related complications and even hypertension.

Fortunately, if you find that you worry too much, there are steps you can take to ensure you worry less and that you lead a positive, happy and healthy life.

How to Stop Worrying

1.    Creating a ‘Worry Period’

When your thoughts are dominated by worry and doubt, it becomes very hard for you to be productive. Trying not to worry doesn’t usually work, and if it does, it won’t be for long. When you try to stop a thought, it is counterproductive because you end up focusing on the thought you want to stop.

Therefore, the first thing you can do is create a period when you are allowed to worry. Ensure it is the same time each day but do not dedicate more than half an hour to it. During this worrying period, you have the liberty to worry about anything and everything. Remember that the mind can adapt to anything it is taught. Once you decide to be worrying for half an hour every morning, your mind will learn not to worry at any other time.

In case you develop an anxious thought during the day, train your mind to postpone worrying about it until the next worry period. You can create a worry list that you can go through only in your worry period. Sometimes, you will find that half the things on your worry list don’t worry you by the time you get to your worry period. This goes to show that you would have wasted time worrying about something that doesn’t matter hours later. 

2.    Solving the Problem

According to research, worrying is sometimes confused with problem-solving. This is because worrying makes your brain focus less on being anxious by distracting your emotions. This makes you feel like you're accomplishing something when in essence you're not. 

When you find that you are worried about a situation, you need to think about how you can solve the situation. This is effective in how to stop worrying.

If you can solve the situation that worries you, you need to start taking the steps needed to solve it. If it involves a debt, you can get in touch with your lender and see if you can get flexible repayment options. You only need to figure out how you can solve the problem. Remember that there is really no perfect solution for any problem. You simply need to work on it to ensure it no longer stresses you.

If you find that you cannot solve a problem that is getting you worried, then you should work to stop worrying about things you have no control over. Learning to embrace your feelings and understanding why you feel that way is the first step.

 3.    Accepting Uncertainty

Anxiety and worry are largely magnified by your inability to tolerate the thought of uncertainty. It is human nature to want to always be on top of things. To want to know what will happen 2 months from now, a year from now and so on. When you feel like you are uncertain of the future, you tend to worry. You mostly focus on the things that can go wrong because you feel helpless in that situation.

You need to understand that worrying about the things you are uncertain about will not make them go away. Start focusing on the present and make plans to better the future, even though it seems uncertain. Once you start seeing progress in your present, you will have hope for a better future and this will help you to stop worrying too much.

4.    Challenging Your Anxious Thoughts 

Chronic anxiety makes you view the world as more dangerous than it actually is. This makes you jump to conclusions and treat every thought as if it were a reality. This discredits your ability to deal with life problems since you have already pictured it to be beyond your ability to control.

The first step you need to take is to identify the thoughts that frighten and worry you. Start treating these thoughts as hypotheses and not reality. This will help you to develop a balanced perspective of the problems.

5.    Examine the Effects of Others on You

Another important step on how to stop worrying is to examine how other people make you feel and the effect they have on you. According to studies, emotions are contagious. It is possible that you have developed anxiety and worry because of the company you keep.

If you find that you worry a lot based on issues you talk about with people in your life, you need to start spending less time with these people. If you cannot cut them off, try and create a list of acceptable topics to discuss with them. If they start discussing issues that will stress and worry you later, you need to walk away or change the topic.

It is advisable for you to choose the people you confide in carefully. If you need to talk to someone about issues that worry you, ensure you choose people who make it possible for you to gain a positive perspective on the situation. Avoid people who feed your fears and make you more anxious.

6.    Practicing Meditation 

Meditation is a very effective way to deal with anxiety and worry. You can set aside a certain time in your day when you practice meditation. The ideal time is when you are almost going to bed. Meditation helps to clear your mind and prepare it for sleep. This ensures you do not lay in bed worrying and over thinking.

When you start worrying, you train your mind to focus on the negative at all times. This makes you analyze every situation with a negative point of view. Socially, this can make you a very bitter person and someone people will avoid being around. This is effective in how to stop worrying about things you can’t change.