Have you ever felt off and couldn’t put your finger on what was wrong? Often that’s a sign of worry, and simple actions can relieve fears and get you back on track for a great day!
Take Action to Relieve Worry
We’ve probably all experienced physical signs of fear even though we didn’t realize our tummy ache, headache, tenseness, or difficulty breathing was fear and worry-related. It’s easy to mistake sickness or lousy food as the culprits when we feel afraid and uneasy.
Sometimes I’ve gone several days with a knot in my stomach before I realized the knot was fear and worry. Asking myself why I’m worried and taking action is key to getting rid of the tummy ache, or what I like to call a worry-ache!
It’s not until I stop and put my finger on what’s bothering me that I can do something about it.
Take action to relieve fear.
Suppose I’m worried my daughter, who has difficulty reading, won’t keep up in class. If I notice I’m not feeling ‘normal’ (Possibly tense or close to tears all day), then I stop and ask myself why. When I know why I ask myself how I can take action. It may be that all I need to do to end my fear is to read with my daughter for fifteen minutes a day. If I take action, my worries disappear because I’m doing something to help.
When something causing me to worry is outside of my control, I pray. I see it as a relay. I hand fears off like a baton to someone who can do something about the problem. Suppose worries come back to bother me? I send the baton off again. If fear persists, I take more action.
I focus my attention on taking action even if I can’t solve the actual problem with my efforts. For example, If a friend is sick, I can’t make her better, but I can send her a card, buy her flowers, or offer to help her with things she has no energy to do. All of these actions are helping my friend, and they’re relieving my fears.
(If you’re not religious, try asking a friend to take your baton. A listening ear sometimes helps.)
Think of worry like a caged wild bird. It’s bumping around inside you smashing into unfamiliar boundaries. It needs to be released. If you’re worrying about things you have no control over it’s especially important to let go. Worrying will eat away at you and ruin your life.
Being anxious or worried about leaving the stove or a curling iron on after you leave the house can be a legitimate worry. Take action and call home (or a neighbor) and have someone check if your house is safe. You may need to turn your car around and see if you left the water running or the doggy door locked. Once you’ve addressed legitimate fears you can let go and go about your day.
It’s often the worries that are hard to identify which eat at us and steal our joy. If you’re feeling off try and identify the root of the problem. Take action whenever possible. If action is impossible release the worry anyway.
Imagine holding a struggling bird in your hands. Give it your worries and let go! Permit yourself to live life to its fullest and let joy permeate your days! When worry comes knocking identify it, let it go, and immediately concentrate on things in your life that you’re thankful for!
Being thankful creates more amazing opportunities in your life which you can be grateful for! Just like being worried brings you more opportunities to be worried!
Choose what you let your thoughts dwell on. It can make or break you day!
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