This may sound like an unusual approach if everyone is always telling you "not to worry" or to "stop worrying!" You may be used to people saying that to you and you may well feel that it really doesn't help so what about another way of dealing with things...making time to worry instead.

 Of course, over-worrying isn’t helpful to you at all. However, sometimes we need to make time to both think about something and to make sure we have worry-free time.

Step one:

Start by asking yourself: ‘What is a reasonable amount of time to think about my problems?’

When you think about it you may decide that you could spend twenty minutes a day focussed on this.

Step two:

Now make sure that you identify a clear twenty minute period each day when you’ll do nothing but worry. Sit down with a clock to make sure that you work to time, or set an alarm, and then you are free to worry as much as you need to for the allotted time.

Step three:

When your time is up, say ‘STOP’ to yourself, and now it is time to go do something completely different.

You might even want to do something special for yourself, to reward yourself for such hard work worrying!

Try this exercise and you can start to take back some of that control for yourself of the thoughts and feelings of worry.

You can always reward yourself with ten minutes to just lie back close your eyes and relax whilst listening to my free relaxation MP3. Just click on the link at the top of the page to enjoy the calming listening experience yourself.

You can also find my free MP3 download on How To Stop a Panic Attack here: http://www.markpowlett.co.uk/howtostopapanicattack.html