‘You worry too much’ my family and friends always told me.

This is a statement I heard again and again over the years when I was panicking about where my life was going, or whether I had said something I shouldn’t have… even down to the decision of whether I should buy that pack of chicken or that pack of chicken.

It is a phrase that has been haunting me for years and after it finally sunk in that I did in fact worry too much…I was hit by another wave of anxiety ’Oh my God I worry too much! How do I stop worrying so much?!’ …Followed by the belief that my worry would cause me to age in just 3 days, my hair would turn grey overnight, and the entire world would plummet into a black hole…

…Okay maybe not, but I swear this was exactly how quickly things would escalate.

I realised I really did need to take a step back and have a good think about how I could try and contain this irrational thinking, so listed below are the 7 reasons why I finally decided to stop worrying so much.

You can’t predict the future, so don’t worry so much about it. Have a plan but don’t be afraid to deviate from it, life will throw opportunities in your direction so don’t be afraid to embrace them. If later, you don’t like the path you are heading down you can change it – it really is that simple. 99% of the things that could go wrong never actually happen. I am a bit of a dreamer myself, and realised that dreaming up a thousand scenarios that would never happen was not doing anything for my sanity – or my blood pressure. When are your worst worrying times? I realised that I had times when I worried more often, usually when I was tired or hungover. Being more aware of these times made me handle them differently… ‘You are just worrying about this because you are tired…think about it in the morning if needs be’. Worrying about a decision won’t make it any better…it’s just tiring and will make you ill. Weigh up the pros and cons, make a decision and stick to it. Remember, the quicker you make a decision, the quicker you can stop thinking about it. Over-thinking or worrying about a situation won’t improve it, acting on it will. I realised that acting on a situation rather than over-analysing it meant that it got sorted a hell of a lot quicker and that I didn’t then have to think about it any more. Stop worrying about what people think of you. The reality is that whilst you have been lying awake at night, thinking about how you should have said this or not said that… the person that you said it to hasn’t thought about you once. And even if they have…you shouldn’t care, because at the end of the day those that matter in your life really won’t mind. Life is short and the sooner you realise that the better. Worrying gets you nowhere – it just wastes your time. Instead of worrying, go and do the things you really want to do, so that you look back on your life and think ‘I had an awesome time doing this…’ not ‘I spent my whole life worrying about things that never happened.’

Although these realizations haven’t completely stopped me worrying (as everyone worries a bit from time to time!), they have helped me look at life a little differently and made me the more relaxed, happier person I am today. With that in mind, I hope that you find them useful and that they help you look at things differently too.