{"id":58968,"date":"2018-08-05T18:56:06","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T02:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=58968"},"modified":"2018-08-07T18:43:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T02:43:02","slug":"do-you-worry-too-much-these-5-habits-and-mindset-shifts-will-revitalize-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/do-you-worry-too-much-these-5-habits-and-mindset-shifts-will-revitalize-your-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you worry too much? These 5 Habits and Mindset Shifts Will Revitalize Your Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Worry… God! I hate this word.<\/p>\n

Worrying is crippling, boring and lifeless. I grew up in a family of multiple chronic worriers, and I know how bad things can go with it. You let negative thoughts have the best of you.<\/p>\n

You worry about anything and everything, big and small, rational and irrational, and you turn yourself into a mental masochist who rarely feels in peace. (pieces maybe, not peace).<\/p>\n

No one is born a worrier —science hasn`t proven it<\/a> yet— \u00a0and depending on how you deal with worries, you can either turn yourself into a chronic worrier or you can get better at tolerating the worst versions of your thoughts.<\/p>\n

It depends on your perseverance and good habits. So, I made you a list of the top five habits, and mindset shifts, that you can use today to overcome excessive worrying. \u00a0Here they are:<\/p>\n

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    Do something positive when the negative hits you<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Sometimes you can`t stop a negative thought from popping up:\u00a0 being fired, getting cheated on\u2026you name it. I have a friend who one day told me he believes he`ll die of cancer someday.<\/p>\n

    Terrible, isn`t it? And you know what`s worse? This shit keeps coming back the more you try to resist it.<\/p>\n

    You keep thinking of reasons to why they won`t fire you or why God will not bring cancer upon you. But you`re still worried, and sure you are, because no matter how powerful you are, there are some things in life over which you have no control.<\/p>\n

    And don`t blame yourself. Even high achievers and confident people have their share of worries and negative thoughts. Elliott Hulse, the internet celebrity, once mentioned<\/a> how the idea of him getting into a car accident had crippled him for years.<\/p>\n

    It`s only when Hulse decided to stop reinforcing that negative thought and do something positive about it. He`d watch something positive on YouTube or do something good for a friend, and soon enough he`d be consumed with the positive over the negative.<\/p>\n

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      You can only control two things: Attitude and Effort<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Upon hearing a tipoff that the school wasn`t going to offer him a contract extension, things weren`t going well with Darrin Donnelly, the head coach of the Wisconsin State football team.<\/p>\n

      He had a rough year coaching-wise, he was on the verge of bankruptcy and with a new child on the way, Donnelly and his wife had all their hopes hanged on getting a new contract from the board. He knew the team should start improving, but it`s hard to win your next game when you know they were going to fire you either way.<\/p>\n

      So how did coach Donnelly react to the new situation? In his book, Think Like a Warrior: The Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable<\/a>, Donnelly mentioned that the key was to focus on the only two things he had control over\u2026. his effort and his attitude.<\/p>\n

      \u201cI sincerely believe that the difference was that I didn\u2019t talk about winning and losing. I didn\u2019t talk about beating opponents. I kept our focus on only what we could control: our effort and our attitude in the present moment.\u201d<\/em> He wrote.<\/p>\n

      Onto Donnelly`s new reaction.\u00a0He played his future like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday<\/a>. But rather than one inch at a time, he focused on one game at a time. \u201cNo fear or failure and no worrying about the future, let`s just do our very best,\u201d he told his players before their next game, and guess what? It was the turning point in his future.<\/p>\n

      The tip-off was false, Donnelly won the game, and the Wisconsin team played their greatest season in four decades.<\/p>\n

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        Say: I`ll think about it later<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u201cTrickery\u201d<\/em> is the best word to describe this technique. (But, it`s the real deal).<\/p>\n

        The next time you worry about something, tell yourself: I`ll worry about it tomorrow. I call this, the lazy approach to staying happy.<\/p>\n

        I learned this technique from Ramit Sethi, the bestselling author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich<\/a>.\u00a0 He calls it the worry vault, where you metaphorically put your worries into a secret vault in the back of your head and choose to worry about them later while focusing on the thing in hand.<\/p>\n

        (Finally, you can be happy about procrastination).<\/p>\n

        I`ve been using this technique for more than three years, it works miracles, and I can`t see a reason it won`t do the same for you.<\/p>\n

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          Put those thoughts on paper<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Diaries are so 1999, but they work.<\/p>\n

          Most negative thoughts are so quick and complex that you don`t know what the hell that struck you. You feel bad, but you don`t know why, and the loop will stay close until you finally understand what`s wrong with your thinking. And here comes journaling.<\/p>\n

          By putting down your thoughts on paper, you get to analyze and understand them and your chances of feeling better increases. According to studies, journaling<\/a> is one of the habits psychologists encourage returning veterans to do to overcome post-combat trauma.<\/p>\n

          Other studies<\/a> also found that when you write down your thoughts before a tough task —like a job interview or an exam— you tend to perform better. So, yes. Maybe it`s time to think about keeping a journal.<\/p>\n

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            Work your ass off (So you don`t have to worry about money)<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            You need money to feel happy. (This is science talking,<\/a> not me).<\/p>\n

            If you analyze any business you know, you`ll notice that all\u00a0 businesses fall into one of three categories:<\/p>\n