Feeling Worried? This 5-Minute Exercise From a Mental Health Expert Will Calm You

Feeling Worried? This 5-Minute Exercise From a Mental Health Expert Will Calm You

via Inc.com by Minda Zetlin

Feeling worried? There’s something you can do about it. Mental Health Counselor Kailey Spina Horan, PhD, has devised a simple exercise that can help you manage your worries and restore at least some of your sense of calm. It takes less than five minutes, and all you need is some paper and a pen.

There’s a lot to be anxious about these days. More than 5.5 million Americans have contracted Covid-19. Unemployment is at levels not seen since the Great Depression. An untold number of businesses, including venerable names like Lord + Taylor and Brooks Brothers, have been pushed into bankruptcy. You may be worried about the future of your own business as well. On top of that, the strain of maintaining social distancing and spending most of your time at home with your family, and perhaps your school-age children, may be making you feel rattled. 

I myself find, paradoxically, that the less I have to worry about, the more worrying I do. After my husband had a heart attack almost three years ago, my worrying was singularly focused on the state of his health and my fear of losing him. I missed an important work deadline — which would normally have sent me into a panic — and it didn’t bother me at all.

When not faced with an immediate threat, I find I worry as much or more, but about a wider array of things. Disappointing clients. What would happen to my husband and I if I were unable to work. The West Coast wildfires, which are dreadful but hundreds of miles away from me. The major earthquake for which our region is overdue. And if all of that isn’t enough, whenever I stay up too late at night or have to get up really early in the morning, I lie awake and worry about not getting enough sleep.

But while making plans for how to deal with challenges in your business or your home life is constructive, worrying will only drain your energy and damage your emotional and physical health. Horan’s method for calming those worries, adapted from cognitive behavioral therapy, is brilliant in its simplicity and surprisingly effective. She explains it fully in a post at Psychology Today. Here are the basics…

… keep reading the full & original article HERE