Eckhart Tolle is his book ‘ the Power of Now’ says that if people are often stuck in the past , then they are probably depressed, if they are always thinking about the future then they are anxious. I am often worrying about the future and tend to be anxious under a very calm and composed surface. Living in the moment is much easier said than done. It takes a lot of practice and efforts to train your mind and yourself to live in the present.
One of the tricks I use on my mind to ease my anxiety is what I call the two years challenge. When I find my self worried and anxious:
- I take a short walk around the block and try to think of what is on my mind.
- I often come up with a list of a few things.
- I put each one of these under the following test: would this matter in anyway in two years time? would it have any implication on my life ? Most things normally fail this test.
- If any issue survives the test and is likely to matter in two years time, then it possibly deserves the ‘worry’.
- The next is to think of ways to translate the worry into actions to address the concern I have.
This has really worked out for me. It makes worry and anxiety working on my behalf , and transforms the negative into positive actions. I also found a great Ted talk on befriending your stress and anxiety https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?language=en I listen to this every now and then and still find it ever useful. It says that a bit of worry is good because it alerts people to possible threats and dangers around them. However, the problem is when worry becomes excessive and burdens people. If we perceive worry as a ‘friend’ and act accordingly then it won’t hurt us physically or emotionally. Try to listen to this talk, highly recommended!
Do you have any tricks to control your anxiety and/or transform them to positive actions? If so, please comment or share.
For the Journey ... 