How to Stop Worrying

 Do you worry about events that never occur? Do you worry your afternoon when you should be focused on your morning? Does your mind conjure up scenarios that have literally 0% chance of coming true?  If yes, then you are officially human. If you want to worry less, Dale Carnegie and I have you covered. 

When I think about someone who worries, the image of my grandmother Phyllis Campbell comes to mind. I think it is just natural for older people to worry and maybe especially for mom’s but I feel like that might be sexist so don’t quote me on that. The next image that comes to my mind when thinking about worrying is a rocking chair. 

(rocking chairs: underrated) 

Earlier this year, I read a book called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I feel that I worry about as much as the average person. I worry less about my future than other people but probably worry more about flight prices that the rest of society. According this NBC article, 85% of what people worry about, never comes true.

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/pop-culture/praise-worry-why-fretting-can-be-good-you-ncna757016

Of course, people worry; there’s an endless amount of topics to worry about:

Climate change

Israel and Palestine

Gender inequality

Your blood pressure

Facts and the public discourse

Big Tech

People stealing your Amazon packages

Polar bears being spray painted

Putting dish soap in the dishwasher  

Falling through roofs

Volcanic eruptions

Your credit score

The first 8 seasons of Terrace House not having English subtitles

Not knowing how to cut vegetables correctly

Monkeys

Having grade 2 students laugh at your drawings on the whiteboard

Buying a pair of chopsticks and having one chopstick go missing

Being naked at a Korean spa and having Korean men look at you and laugh

You know, normal stuff. Well Dale Carnegie has some tips to help us out.

Think of your life as an hourglass. Thousands of grains each slowly pass through and evenly. When we start in the morning, we have many tasks. Take them one at a time, slowly, and you can make it through your day. One grain of sand at a time. One task at a time.

Folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. 

Half of all the beds in our hospitals were reserved for patients with nervous and mental troubles, patients who had collapsed under the crushing burden of accumulated yesterdays and fearful tomorrows.

 1-What is the problem

2-what is the cause of the problem

3-what are all possible solutions of the problem?

4-what solutions do you suggest?

Get the facts. Analyse the facts. Arrive at a decision and then act.

Lets examine the record: what are the chances according to the law of averages, that this event I am worrying about will ever occur?

I am going to meet people today who talk too much people who are selfish, egotistical ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed for I couldn’t imagine a world without such people.

To raise grateful children, we need to be grateful.

There are two things to aim at in life first to get what you want. The second is to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

The north wind made the Vikings.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right-for you’ll  be criticized anyway.

I have realized that I myself in the last analysis am to blame for almost all my misfortunes.

Clear desk of all papers and things not needed to solve problem at hand.

Do things in order of their importance.

Don’t put off making decisions. Gather facts, act.

Don’t try and wash tomorrow’s dirty dishes today.

A chief cause of fatigue is boredom.

Keep busy.

When you are worried use your muscles more and your brain less.

Patience and time have a way of solving our troubles.

I would add my analysis here but I feel like he summed it up perfectly. So pick a few of these sayings and keep them in mind next time you are wondering where your wife is and it’s past midnight on a work night. She probably just lost track of time at book club. Probably.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never occurred