Friday 4 August 2006

How to Stop Obsessive Worry for Lazy People

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Obsessive worry is a negative spiral. It takes a deliberate act of will to stop it. You need to get out of your head (not in the consuming alcohol or drugs sense :) ) and try to focus your mind on alternative activities and experiences. This will help your mind move away from obsessive thinking.

Below are some examples of activities – in my experience – that have helped:

1. Do physical exercise.
2. Do progressive muscle relaxation.
3. Talk to someone. Converse about something other than the worry unless you want to express your feelings about it.
4. Use visual distractions e.g. T.V., movies, computer games or uplifting reading (such as this blog :) ).
5. Do something creative with your hands e.g. arts and crafts, gardening or playing a musical instrument.
6. Find an alternative positive obsession e.g. sudoko, crossword or jigsaw puzzle.
7. Listen to some kind of talk radio program to ground yourself and again to distract yourself.
8. Use the worry hour technique to delay your obsessive thoughts i.e. allow yourself to worry about them later but not right now.
9. Physical intimacy. If you are a single I guess some D.I.Y *coughs* will do.
10. Write about your feelings in your journal. Get them out of your head and onto paper.

The techniques above are given to you to help you break the cycle of obsessive thinking. I am sure you can think of many more but I hope my ten suggestions above will help you in some way. I can guarantee – from personal experience – if you do these things, you WILL feel better!

Good Luck!
Allen

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