On a daily basis a person has countless thoughts going through his head. When we face some difficulties, we tend to think a lot. This is also called worrying. Worrying often sounds negative, but it does have a function. For example, it can be nice to reflect on yourself, or it can be good to have a clear idea of ​​what you want and not want in your life. It can also be good to prepare yourself for a stressful event or to focus your attention on your thoughts to distract yourself from, for example feelings of sadness.

Some people are very good at worrying. When you worry a lot, it requires a lot of energy and you can get physical complaints from it. Feelings of tension, restlessness and fatigue occur when you worry a lot. Feelings of anxiety often occur and there is a sense of losing control since the worrying thoughts pop up even though you don’t want to think about it. Sometimes even worrying thoughts about the act of worrying itself arise. Fortunately there are ways to stop worrying!

Insight

We often have a fixed way of thinking, this is called a thinking style. Many thinking styles can lead to a wrong idea of reality, without us even realising it. Go through the list of thinking styles and see which ones you recognise yourself in!

Moment for worrying

Worrying all day is not good. To limit excessive worrying, plan a moment to worry during your day. This moment is a fixed moment during the day where you allow yourself to worry about everything. This simple trick teaches you to gain more control over your automatic thoughts. Read the following steps to learn how to do this:

• Every day you choose a fixed moment where you give yourself 15 to 30 minutes to worry about everything that is bothering you. This can be about anything. Worry about it! Set a stopwatch or a timer on your phone at 15/30 minutes to keep track of time. (Tip: do not do this just before bed!)
• When the moment of worrying has ended, do something fun to prevent yourself from getting stuck in a negative spiral of worrying thoughts. Going to the gym or making yourself a nice meal is also an option.
• It is possible that worrying thoughts pop into your head when it’s not ‘worrying time’. What you can do about this, is to write down all your thoughts. Only allow yourself to think about these thoughts then it is ‘worrying time’. It will be a challenge in the beginning, but the more you do this, the more you will discover that you can control your thoughts!

Empty your head

It can be difficult in the beginning to ‘pause’ the thoughts. Do you find it difficult to clear your head? Then you can try the Progressive Relaxation exercise. This exercise will not only give you a relaxed body, but also a relaxed mind. Since you are completely focussed on relaxing your muscles, your mind will no longer be occupied with worrying thoughts. You will find out that your head is a lot more tranquil after this exercise!

NiceDay

Schedule a daily moment to worry in the NiceDay app and register how it went. Or create a mood registration after you have done a relaxation exercise to clear your head!