Worry is an anticipatory response to an unknown threat created by the imagination that leads to feeling anxious. The document provides tips for managing worries, including using a systematic problem solving approach, not wasting time worrying about unlikely situations, accepting some uncertainty, addressing negative moods, acknowledging worries without trying to suppress them, writing down worries that prevent sleep, and living in the present rather than thinking too much about the future.

1. Tips to manage Your Worries

2. What is Worry?
Worry is a set of
responses to an
unknown, imprecise or
ill defined threat , often
anticipatory in nature
and created by the
imagination. Worry
leads to feeling anxious

3. If you are worried and want to get
rid of it, here are some tipsfor you. These are
essential to follow for managing worries in the best way.

4. Effective strategies to improve the quality of life is a systematic
approach for Problem Solving
Here is one of many possible models of
problem solving:
1. Problem identification: What is
my concern?
2. Goal definition What do I want
to achieve or change?
3. Brainstorming What can I do?
4. Consequences What might
happen?
5. Decision How should I do it?
6. Implementation Do it
7. Evaluation Did it work?

5. Don’t waste time
thinking up
situations that
‘might’ happen,
but in reality are
quite unlikely to
happen – that is just
a misuse of good
brain time!

6. Don’t be fooled into
thinking that your worry
will always be helpful. If
you are a persistent worrier
you’ve probably come to use
worrying simply to kid
yourself that you’re doing
‘something’ about a
problem. This is not an
alternative to tackling the
problem now in practical
ways.

7. Uncertainty is a fact of
life, so try to accept that
you will always have to
live with and tolerate
some uncertainty.
Unexpected things
happen, and accepting
this in the longer term
will make your life
easier and reduce your
anxieties.

8. Negative moods fuel
worrying. Negative
moods include anxiety,
sadness, anger, guilt,
shame, and even
physical states such as
tiredness and pain. If
you find yourself
worrying in a negative
mood, immediately try
to do something to lift
your mood.

9. When you do start to
worry – don’t try and
fight or control
those thoughts. It is
helpful to notice them
rather than try to suppress
them, because actively
trying to suppress
thoughts simply makes
them bounce back even
more! So acknowledge
those worrisome thoughts
but then move on to doing
something more useful.

10. Very often your worries may stop you
sleeping. You may find yourself
running through every possible
problem that could arise and trying to
think up solutions. All this will do is
keep you awake longer, and you’ll end
up feeling tired the next day. One
solution to worries that keep you
awake at night is to keep a pen and
paper next to the bed. When you wake
up worrying, simply write a list of
things you need to do tomorrow
(including dealing with the worry).
You’ll probably find that once the
worry has been transferred to that
piece of paper, there is now no longer
any need to keep it in your head as
well. It can be dealt with tomorrow.

11. Don’t think
so much for
the future
Live the
present. This
is the key to a
successful
Life.

12. www.counsellingbondi.com