Tag Archives: Worry

Keep Calm and Carry (Your Baby) On

There’s nothing like a positive pregnancy test to send your mind into worry mode, especially if you are at all prone to anxiety. Of course you are excited, but you are nervous, too. After all, you can’t see what is going on in there and you won’t be able to feel the baby moving until about halfway through the pregnancy. The good news is that often, pregnancies go well. Even better, there are many things that you can stop worrying about or at least worry less. One way to do this is to think about any information that you receive … Continue reading →

How False Assumptions Fuel Anxiety

If you are living with an anxiety disorder – such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or panic disorder – you probably live with a deep-seated set of assumptions about life that simply are not true. Unfortunately, these are assumptions so ingrained in your belief system that you never think to question them. You take these assumptions for granted, giving them needless power over your life. The key to overcoming anxiety is to bring these negative assumptions out of the shadows and into the light. Upon close scrutiny, you can come to see assumptions for what they really are – false … Continue reading →

Dealing with the Worrier- Part 2

Following on from yesterday, here are more suggestions about dealing with the worrier and tips how you can best help them. If you are a believer, pray for them. You don’t need to know exactly what the worries are to be able to pray for peace and settling. Better still if they are agreeable, is pray with them about their worrying. Again you don’t need to know what the worries are, unless they want to tell you. God knows. That’s all that matters. So encourage them to share if they want to but don’t hassle them if they don’t. Sometimes … Continue reading →

Worrying About Losing Your Job is Bad For Your Health

Are you worried about losing your job? You’re certainly not alone. But a new study says that worrying about losing your job can be worse for your health than being unemployed. Researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of California, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development took a look at data from some long-term studies on American workers. The two studies — one done during the 1980s and one during the 1990s — interviewed workers about physical and mental health. People who were persistently worried about losing their jobs reported … Continue reading →

It Shouldn’t Be This Hard

Even when you love someone, it isn’t always easy to know the right thing to do. Sometimes no matter how much you love them it’s hard to know when love, support and sympathy are quite simply too much. It’s hard to know when love and concern crosses over into interference and hovering over our spouse or other family members. Sometimes it’s a matter of timing. We want to rush in and act and show our support but in the process don’t give the one we love enough space and time to process things themselves before expecting them to share the … Continue reading →

A Conversation You Wish You Had with Your Spouse

Is there a conversation you wish you had had with your spouse? It might be a conversation you wish you’d had with your spouse, or your parents, or another family member. The book I’ve been reading suggested, ‘write down something you wish you’d said with someone close to you but never did.’ In the book the main character, Sophie, looks back at all the ‘honest conversations’ she didn’t have with her ex. Conversations that she believed later might have averted the ‘derailment of their marriage.’ She thought about all the conversations she didn’t have with her parents and with her … Continue reading →

How to Deal with Fears and Worry

We all have times when we are afraid. Years ago someone told me the antidote to fear is prayer. Certainly that has been proved true in my life time and time again. By nature, I admit I am a worrier. It seems to come naturally to me – the instinctive reaction. Therefore it takes a concerted effort to train myself not to worry but to hand the situation to God in prayer. Even then, there is always the temptation to take it back again. I’ve needed to learn to leave it with Him to work out and every time I … Continue reading →

What Are You Thinking?

‘I think therefore I am,’ Descartes said. The apostle Paul obviously considered a person’s thought life to be important. Philippians 4:8 reminds us ‘whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is anything excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your minds dwell on these things.’ Our pastor recently suggested, ‘a man is not just what he thinks he is but what he thinks about – he is.’ The reality is that as our minds are transformed so are our attitudes and behavior. What we … Continue reading →

Worrying Doesn’t Help

I know this is a cliché, after all, how many times have you been told to stop worrying because worrying does not help the situation? We’ve all heard it a thousand times and yet, many of us find ourselves right back here in the pit of worry. As a parent, particularly, it can be tough to break the worry habit. I am learning, however, that there are some constructive things I can do when I start to feel myself wrestling with worry… Here what happens when I get into a state of worry—not only do I give into feeling stress … Continue reading →

Having Trouble Sleeping? (3)

So far we have addressed poor sleeping habits such as not waking at the same time each day, using the bedroom for activities other than sleeping, the trouble with lights in the bedroom, and the emotional effects of a messy bedroom. You can find the links to the first two articles in this series below. Today we look at the issues of anxiety and stress in sleep disorders. 5. Worry and anxiety and their effect on sleep We all intuitively know that anxiety and worry are professional sleep killers. Yet we can’t always avoid worry and anxiety in our lives, … Continue reading →