For most of us worrying seems to be something we have little control over.
Sometimes we justify it as being something that cautious and careful people do, almost seeing it as a virtue. Make no mistake it is not; even low level worrying has a negative effect on our health and wellbeing. Worrying is believed to have developed in humans over time as a survival mechanism.
We are not particularly fast or strong and don’t have big teeth or claws, what we do have is an amazing brain.
Thinking ahead to anticipate danger is a very useful behaviour to have. At its best, this ability is a skill to draw on and take preventative action before danger presents itself.
The process of anticipating danger and planning what to do is a very positive action to take and helps us feel in control.
When we believe we have some level of control over a situation, our fight or flight response is muted, and we feel relatively safe.
For most of us there are fewer physical threats to face than our ancient ancestors had to deal with.
Worrying is more about perceived threats to our “self’ rather than our physical body.
Nevertheless, it still has the same physiological effect in our body.
Hormones including cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline are released and these are all associated with the fight or flight response.
Produced frequently or over an extended period of time they will adversely affect our immune system, our sleep patterns, our digestive system and our muscles to name a few.
The best way to manage worry is initially to apply first aid; physical exercise, relaxation exercises, meditation and sleep hygiene are all worth trying, but none of them deal with the root cause of the problem which is our thinking.
Long term we must deal with the perceived threat to our “self” which is where the fight flight response originates.
Identifying the situations we are worrying about and figuring out what to do about them is the next step.
Pay attention to worrying rather than trying to push it down.
Your system is telling you that it is perceiving threat.
Identify what you are worrying about and decide if it really matters, often this is all we have to do.
If the threat is serious enough, work out what you are going to do about it, then put that plan into action. Identifying threat and figuring out what to do about it means our system is working perfectly.
